Christa Pike conscious, speaking nearly a week after Tennessee's failed execution

Christa Pike is conscious and speaking at a hospital nearly a week after Tennessee's failed execution, her attorneys say.In a statement, attorneys for Pike said she remains handcuffed and shackled despite suffering significant injuries to her arms after two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her.The statement described her prognosis as unclear.The US state of Tennessee tried to execute Pike, 50, by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on the night of September 30.The IV team struggled for a long time to find a vein — her lawyers say at least seven needles were used, one bent at a right angle when removed — and then administered two full doses of pentobarbital.She was taken by ambulance to a Nashville hospital with both arms swollen, burned, and blistered, which her lawyers attribute to the caustic drug leaking into tissue after veins blew.Governor Bill Lee halted executions for the rest of 2026 and ordered an independent review; the prisons commissioner later resigned.Pike had been on death row since 1996 for the January 12, 1995 torture-murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a Knoxville Job Corps centre.At 18, Pike and her partner, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Slemmer into the woods near the University of Tennessee over jealousy.They killed her by smashing her skull with a chunk of asphalt.Pike was arrested within 36 hours and convicted of first-degree murder.Shipp, 17 at the time, received life.Pike was the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.Botched execution dividesThe botched execution has rankled people for opposite reasons, and the details of the attempt made both reactions sharper.The procedure itself looked like a prolonged failure rather than a controlled execution.

Staff took a long time to place an IV, using at least seven needles by her lawyers’ account, one of them bent at a right angle when removed.She stayed conscious, cried and whimpered, and said her arm felt like it was about to burst.Two full doses of pentobarbital still did not stop her heart.Her lawyers say the lines were misplaced or the veins blew, so the caustic drug leaked into tissue; she arrived at the hospital with both arms swollen, burned, and blistered, then remained unconscious and on a ventilator.Others are rankled that the sentence was not carried out at all.