Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike conscious after botched execution

Death row inmate Christa Pike is awake, conscious, and speaking in hospital after surviving a botched execution attempt in the state of Tennessee, her attorneys announced on Tuesday. The BBC and Al Jazeera reported that the 50-year-old was hospitalized after surviving two failed lethal injections on September 30. France 24 noted that Pike is the first woman Tennessee has attempted to put to death in 200 years. [1][2][3][4][5]

Lawyers and experts told the BBC that her recovery is medically unprecedented, describing her as believed to be the only known person to survive a lethal injection. Al Jazeera reported that Pike received two doses of pentobarbital during the attempt. According to France 24, Pike remains hospitalized in Nashville with severe injuries to both arms while receiving critical medical care. [1][2][3][4]

Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Slemmer was lured into a wooded area in Knoxville, where she was beaten, slashed, and killed when her skull was crushed with a chunk of asphalt. At her trial in Knox County in March 1996, the jury recommended the death penalty, making Pike the youngest woman sentenced to capital punishment in the United States since 1976. [1][11][12]

The BBC reported that medical staff spent days clearing Pike's body of the injected drugs while she lay unconscious. Her attorneys stated that she continues to receive critical medical care while remaining handcuffed in her hospital bed. [1][3][5]