Christa Pike has reportedly made progress in the weeks since Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, with her lawyers saying she can now walk and speak in complete sentences.
The 50-year-old was given two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 as state officials attempted to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. However, Pike continued breathing after the drugs were administered.
She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she remained unconscious and dependent on a ventilator. Her arms had also suffered severe burns.
After being discharged, Pike was returned to the women’s prison where she had been held for 30 years. Her lawyers say she has shown physical improvement since the botched execution.
Her attorney told TMZ that Pike is now able to walk more independently.
Her speech has improved as well, the attorney said, and she can communicate more clearly and put together full sentences.
The lasting impact of the failed execution remains uncertain, however, as doctors continue assessing Pike’s cognitive and psychological condition.
Her lawyer said it could take another month before the long-term consequences of the execution attempt become clear.
Christa Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during Tennessee’s attempt to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer
Emergency crews were seen arriving at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution attempt went wrong on September 30
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.
Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was trying to take her boyfriend. They alleged that she lured Slemmer into a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and struck her with a large piece of asphalt.
Shipp later carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s body. He was 17 at the time and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, while Pike was the only defendant sentenced to death.
Pike’s lawyers have previously claimed in court documents that medical staff used at least seven needles while attempting to establish access for the two lethal doses of pentobarbital on September 30.
“At one point, Ms Pike herself offered guidance on where the IV team could attempt access; one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” they wrote.
According to the lawyers, Pike cried, whimpered and breathed heavily as medical staff administered the two sets of syringes containing the lethal drug.
During the procedure, she reportedly said, “my arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” At another point, she asked, “does this happen like that?”
By the time Pike reached the hospital, both arms were swollen, blistered and burned. Her lawyers compared the effects of the drug to bleach or Drano, a chemical used to clear blocked household drains and pipes.
Pike was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of her classmate and is pictured receiving her sentence in 1996
She had spent 30 years on death row after being convicted of murdering her Knoxville Jobs Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995
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Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right) in Slemmer’s beating and murder
Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
‘Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,’ the lawyers wrote in the court filing.
They wrote that, instead of ‘remedying this failure,’ they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
A Tennessee judge has since ordered the state to preserve all evidence from her failed execution.
Assistant Attorney General John Ayers did not object to the request, noting there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisting that the Department of Correction has already preserved the evidence from her attempted execution.
He added that log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.
It has since been revealed that local and state police were left confused and incredulous after prison officials first reported that Pike survived her execution attempt – with one dispatcher even believing it was a false report.
Pike (pictured in 2007) has been discharged from the hospital and is back in prison and is now able to walk and speak more clearly in complete sentences
Police dispatch audio transcripts from the night of the failed execution show that the first 911 call came in at 8.40pm, just one hour after the attempted lethal injection got underway.
‘We’ve been carrying out an execution tonight. We’ve administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not yet deceased,’ the caller said as he asked for an ambulance.
The dispatcher then replied by asking the caller for a verification code for agencies to confirm to one another that a call is not a false report, which the caller did not have.
At that point, the dispatcher called the Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control at 8.59 to verify the call’s authenticity.
‘We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening and we need to send an ambulance,’ or ‘if this is someone that is basically prank-calling,’ she said.
The dispatcher was then told that nobody from that office had called police about a botched execution, and at 9.03pm the dispatcher concluded, ‘We have been informed it is a false call’ and ‘there is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.’
But at 9.06pm, 26 minutes after the first call, the Department of Correction finally called back with a code.
Still, the news did not reach the gate at the prison as a first responder reported: ‘Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.’
Finally, at 9.11pm, a police dispatcher called the Tennessee Highway Patrol asking the department to send a trooper to the prison so that emergency vehicles could get through the prison gates.
It now remains unclear how state officials will proceed with her case. Pike’s attorneys have argued she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence.