(The Center Square) – An attorney for Tennessee convicted murderer Christa Pike said personnel worked for more than an hour before abandoning Pike's Sept. 30 attempted execution and transferring her to a private hospital.
Pike received two doses of pentobarbital during the state's attempt to execute her. She was unconscious until Tuesday, when she woke up and asked where she was, her attorneys said in a news conference on Wednesday.
"Christa has a blood clot in one of her arms," said Randy Spivey, an attorney with the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender. "She has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten. She cannot move either of her arms."
According to testimony and prosecutors, Pike was 18 in 1995 when she killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors say Pike and two accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat Slemmer. All were part of a Job Corps training program in Knoxville.
A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest. Investigators say Pike bragged of keeping a skull fragment as a “souvenir.”
She was also convicted of attempted murder in 2001 after trying to strangle another prisoner with a shoestring.
Spivey said Pike was at peace before the execution, and she "helped the execution team find what they thought was venous access."
"She was kind and polite as they worked for an hour, stabbing her arm with needle after needle," Spivey said.
Spivey said they don't have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning before Pike awoke, but that she has a long road to recovery.
Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles ordered the state to preserve all evidence, including medical waste, execution policies and procedures and training methods and any video recordings made during the failed execution after a Wednesday hearing.
Pike's attorneys will also be able to meet with their client if they give the warden a two-hour notice, Myles also ruled. The warden must respond to the request within two hours.
When asked how much Pike's care is costing the state or her condition, the Department of Correction told The Center Square that it didn't have any further information to share.
Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who made $21,160 a month, or $253,920 annually, according to the Transparent Tennessee website, resigned on Saturday. His tenure began in January 2023. Strada led the department when the decision was made to use the single drug pentobarbital. Gov. Bill Lee paused executions in 2022 to review the state's death penalty protocols and tasked Strada with investigating the methods.
Republican state Rep. Lowell Russell of Vonore is calling on Lee to fire anyone who participated in the failed executions of Pike and Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of murder in 1996 for the deaths of Marcellos Anderson, his mother, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker. Lee gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve from execution after he survived an attempt in May. The governor has not issued any orders regarding Pike.
"Many constituents share concerns of not hearing from TDOC about Christa Pike's botched execution in a timely manner," Russell said in a letter to Lee. "Whatever you decide to do, I encourage full transparency. Victim's families deserve closure."
Lee has announced an independent review of what happened during Pike's attempted execution and has halted executions through the end of 2026. The governor leaves office in January.
U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, who also reviewed the state's execution protocol in 2022, will handle the investigation, according to Lee's office.
Russell joined Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor, in calling for a return to the electric chair.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton said state lawmakers will consider changing the execution method when they reconvene in January.
"We will look at all options – expanding the alternatives, and changing the current medications to include potassium chloride," Sexton said on social media.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerri Green called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
"As a public defender, I’ve met a few too many people who were wrongfully convicted on death row who were later exonerated," Green said on social media. "As governor, I would put a moratorium on all future executions. If we say we are pro-life, that means we must be anti-death penalty."
