Christa Pike 'angry and confused' after failed execution, lawyers say

Where am I and who are you?

Those were the first words Christa Pike spoke on Tuesday, Oct. 6, after waking up in a hospital with a tube down her throat. Just a day earlier, her legal team believed she was brain dead and expected life support to be removed on Tuesday following the state's second botched execution this year. Instead, the 50-year-old inmate survived two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital administered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on September 30. Her survival makes her the first person known to have survived a “completed execution attempt” in the US, according to her lawyers.

Pike remains very sick and shackled to her hospital bed, facing a long road to recovery, her lawyers said. Her lawyers report that she cannot swallow or eat, has pneumonia, has a blood clot in one arm, cannot move her “tremendously swollen” hands or arms, and it is unclear if she will regain her lost mobility. Doctors have told NBC News that it appeared most of the pentobarbital entered her arm rather than her bloodstream, having enough power to put her to sleep but not to stop her heart or slow her breathing. Witnesses to the attempted execution described how they heard her breathing raggedly after receiving the first injection, and she had lifted her head from the execution gurney to say her arms were burning as the drug was administered in an ordeal that lasted more than two hours, involving an all-female execution team requested by Pike using at least seven needles, with one needle bent 90 degrees when it was pulled out.

Before the execution, Pike's legal team had sought an alternative to lethal injections, saying her small veins and related medical conditions made her afraid that something would go wrong. What happened to Christa is exactly what the state was warned would happen, Randy Spivey, one of her lawyers, said. Spivey added that she was cooperative and polite during the execution attempt, even helping the execution team find a good vein for her IV before feeling the burn of the pentobarbital. Her survival has renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the US and the secretive methods states use to obtain execution drugs.

Evidence preservation and legal battles

In a Davidson County Chancery Court hearing on Wednesday, Chancellor I’Ashea Myles largely sided with Pike’s lawyers, ordering Tennessee officials to preserve all relevant evidence from the failed execution. The mandated preservation list includes syringes, drug packaging and lot numbers, catheters, intravenous lines, gurney restraints, medical supplies and records, photographs, video recordings, handwritten notes, checklists, and internal communications such as incident reports, witness accounts, and encrypted messages. Myles instructed the state to claw back any information that might have already been discarded and ensure going forward that no further information is discarded or destroyed.

Luke Ihnen, another lawyer for Pike, emphasized the necessity of the ruling during Wednesday's press conference. Today’s hearing was about transparency, about why Christa, the courts, the media and the public should not simply take the state’s word about what happened last Wednesday, Ihnen said. He noted that the state has made no promises that Pike will not be subject to a future execution, making the evidence relevant for any future challenge she makes. The Tennessee Department of Correction opposed what it says is a “duplicative and unnecessary” preservation order, arguing it was already legally required to preserve all evidence and that it was already willing to share most, if not all, of what Pike’s lawyers sought, though Myles noted the state would have no problem doing this because it was already doing that.

The fallout from the procedure has reached the state administration. Governor Bill Lee insisted in the hours after the Sept. 30 execution attempt that the team followed the state’s protocol well, but days later he announced that the state’s top prison official, Frank Strada, would be stepping down this month. Strada stated that stepping aside was in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward. Lee has also ordered an independent review of the failed execution and paused all executions in the state for the rest of the year. This marks the second failed lethal injection in Tennessee this year, following Tony Carruthers' execution in May when the state Department of Corrections struggled to find a vein to set a backup injection line.

Decades on death row and an uncertain future

Pike was 18 years old when she and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, committed the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a schoolmate they met at a job training camp for troubled teens. Prosecutors stated that Pike feared Slemmer was trying to take Shipp away from her, leading the pair to lure Slemmer into a wooded area, where they beat, tortured and killed her. Shipp was spared the death penalty because he was not yet legally an adult at the time and received a life sentence, while Pike was sentenced to death and has spent three decades on death row. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

While recovering in the hospital, Pike has been asking questions about her surroundings. She has wanted to know what’s happened, and she’s asked about several people, Spivey said. She’s asked about her team. She’s asked about the victim’s family. Spivey noted that she is very aware that the state tried to execute her, leaving her angry and confused about everything right now while facing a long road to recovery. Her legal team has demanded that Governor Lee commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison and never attempt to execute her again. A spokesperson for Lee, who denied a clemency appeal two days before the failed execution, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As the independent review proceeds, the state has yet to clarify whether it will attempt to execute Pike again.