Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator after failed US execution, lawyers say

Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row inmate who survived a failed lethal injection on Wednesday, remains critically ill, unconscious and on a ventilator, her attorneys said Friday.

Pike, 50, is receiving treatment at a hospital, where doctors are working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital administered during the botched execution from her system, according to an emergency court filing by her lawyers.

Her attorneys said Pike has suffered significant injuries to both arms. They filed the motion in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence related to the failed execution.

The latest filing provides the most detailed account yet of Pike's condition and what her lawyers say happened inside the execution chamber.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE FAILED EXECUTION

Tennessee attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday night.

The state administered two doses of pentobarbital, but neither resulted in her death. Witnesses reported that Pike remained alive and could be heard breathing and making other sounds for more than an hour after the drugs were administered. She was eventually taken to a hospital.

Pike's attorneys said the problem stemmed from intravenous access. According to their court filing, the IV lines were not correctly positioned and some of Pike's veins had "blown", meaning the pentobarbital was entering her body outside the bloodstream.

"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," her lawyers said.

They alleged that, rather than correcting the problem, the execution team prepared and administered a second set of pentobarbital syringes.

The attorneys had previously warned the state and courts about difficulties with intravenous access, citing Pike's medical condition and small veins.

TENNESSEE HALTS FURTHER EXECUTIONS

The failed execution was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year. Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review of what happened and halted the state's remaining scheduled execution for 2026.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has said the state followed every step of its established execution protocol. The department said Pike was transported to an outside medical facility after the execution attempt.

Pike's lawyers are now seeking to preserve evidence from the execution, saying it is necessary to establish what happened and protect her legal rights.

WHY WAS CHRISTA PIKE SENTENCED TO DEATH?

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow participant at a job-training programme in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed Slemmer in a wooded area on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus, according to court records. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. Shipp was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Her execution went ahead after a last-minute legal battle in which the US Supreme Court allowed the state to proceed after a federal appeals court had temporarily stayed the execution.

The Death Penalty Information Center has described Pike's case as the first known instance of a person surviving after being injected with lethal execution drugs.