US Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Conscious After Failed Execution Attempt

US death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and able to speak after surviving a failed lethal injection in Tennessee last week, according to her lawyers.

Pike, 50, remains in hospital receiving critical medical care and is reportedly handcuffed and shackled to her bed. Her lawyers said her prognosis remains uncertain and warned that she faces a long recovery.

Anaesthesiologist Dr Joel Zivot, who is advising Pike’s legal team, told the BBC that she can communicate in a basic way but appears not to remember the execution attempt. She has reportedly been taken off a ventilator and can recall some details of being in hospital.

Pike was able to identify herself but incorrectly believed it was still September, according to Zivot. She has no known memory of the September 30 execution attempt, during which prison officials administered lethal injections twice.

The failed execution has been described by experts as unprecedented. Criminologist Deborah Denno told the BBC she was “absolutely astonished” that Pike was conscious and speaking, saying previous cases of prisoners surviving executions involved failures to inject the lethal drugs into the veins.

Authorities have not explained why the execution failed or said whether they intend to make another attempt. Zivot has suggested that some of the pentobarbital used may have spread into tissue beneath Pike’s skin rather than entering her bloodstream in a sufficient quantity to cause death.

Pike’s lawyers had previously warned that her medical condition, including thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting disorder, and her small veins could make the execution difficult and potentially cause severe pain. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has since suspended executions in the state for the remainder of the year while the incident is investigated.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Shipp was 17 at the time and was therefore not eligible for the death penalty. He remains in prison.

Pike’s lawyers are due in court in Nashville and have renewed their request for Governor Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without parole. Meanwhile, the case has renewed scrutiny of lethal injection procedures, with the Death Penalty Information Center reporting that more than a third of US executions in 2022 were botched or highly problematic.