Christa Pike Returns to Prison After Surviving Tennessee Execution Attempt
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Christa Pike, the Tennessee inmate who survived a lethal injection attempt on Sept. 30, has been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison, her attorneys said in a statement Saturday. The state has not said whether it will try to carry out the sentence again.
According to CBS News, Pike, 50, is back at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where she has been housed for more than 30 years. Her lawyers said she is still receiving medical care there and that they will keep monitoring her recovery.
How the days since the execution attempt unfolded
- Sept. 30: Pike was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. The Supreme Court had earlier rejected a last-minute effort to stop it, CBS News reported. BBC News reported she received two injections of the drug pentobarbital. ABC News reported she appeared to still be breathing afterward. A media witness told CBS News that she could be heard loudly snoring about an hour after the procedure began. She was taken to a hospital by ambulance.
- Tuesday: According to BBC News, Pike regained consciousness and began speaking, which surprised experts, medical staff and her own lawyers. Her attorneys said her first words were "Where am I?" and a question about who the people around her were.
- Wednesday: Her lawyers said she started taking limited steps with help. At an emergency hearing in Davidson County court, the judge ordered the state correction department to preserve records and other evidence about the failed procedure, according to CBS News and BBC News.
- Thursday: Her attorneys said she was walking with some assistance, her arms were regaining movement and strength, her lungs were clear and she had started eating a regular diet.
- Saturday: Her lawyers announced she had been discharged and returned to the prison.
Who Pike is and why she was on death row
Pike was convicted in 1995 of killing Colleen Slemmer, 19, a classmate. CBS News, citing court filings, reported that Pike was 18 at the time and attacked Slemmer with a meat cleaver and a box cutter in a wooded part of the University of Tennessee campus, with help from her boyfriend and a friend. BBC News identified the boyfriend as Tadaryl Shipp and said the two had met Slemmer at a job training camp for low-income young people.
The statement Saturday came from four attorneys: Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender. They said Pike is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in "extraordinary circumstances."
Why it matters: an unprecedented legal question
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the U.S. CBS News reported that others have survived botched procedures, but that Pike is the only known inmate in the modern death penalty era to stay alive after actually receiving lethal chemicals. BBC News described her case as uncharted territory.
What happens to her now is unresolved. At Wednesday's hearing, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers told the judge he did not know whether the state plans to reschedule the execution, according to BBC News. Ihnen said in court that the state has not promised Pike will not face another execution.
Her legal team has asked Gov. Bill Lee to change her sentence to life in prison without parole, which would rule out a second attempt. The attorneys told CBS News this is the usual course after an inmate survives a failed execution. BBC News reported that the evidence the judge ordered preserved could support a future lawsuit against the state.
What to watch next
Pike's lawyers say they will continue to track her recovery. The governor has not been reported to have responded to the request to change her sentence, and the state has not said whether it will seek a new execution date.
