Lawyers: Pike getting "life-saving care" after failed execution
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Christa Pike in 2023. Photo: Courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Correction
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike's attorneys said she was "in critical condition" and "receiving life-saving care" Thursday, a day after she survived an execution attempt during which the state administered two doses of the lethal injection drug.
- A death penalty expert told the Associated Press that Pike's survival after receiving the execution drug was unprecedented.
The latest: State and federal elected officials are pressing for public accountability after the second failed execution this year. Gov. Bill Lee ordered a independent review of the Pike execution attempt.
- On Thursday morning, he told reporters there were "very few answers" about what had gone wrong.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the frontrunner to succeed Lee as governor next year, blasted the "botched process" in a statement and pushed for the state to "bring back the electric chair."
Pike's attorneys told reporters Thursday that Lee's pledge to launch an investigation did not go far enough. They urged him to commute her death sentence.
What they're saying: Attorney Randy Spivey, who was inside the prison during the execution attempt, said prison officials spent about an hour trying to establish IV access. He counted at least seven needles used in Pike's left arm alone.
- Pike complained of sharp pain during the lethal injection. Spivey said he noticed her right arm turning purple, especially after the second round of chemicals. He said the lawyers had also been told of blistering and burning around the injection sites.
Between the lines: Federal public defender Stephen Ferrell said the lawyers had warned courts months earlier about medical problems with Pike's veins that made it harder to establish an IV.
Zoom in: The attorneys also said they weren't able to quickly reach their colleagues or court officials responsible for overseeing the execution.
- Spivey said it took seven minutes and passage through six locked doors to get to a telephone so he could reach the rest of Pike's legal team.
- Ferrell said an emergency telephone number provided for the Tennessee Supreme Court went to voicemail.
The state's response: Lee called the latest failed execution "a tragedy" on Thursday morning.
- "It's deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state," he told reporters, according to Reuters.
The big picture: This isn't the first time Tennessee's prison officials have faced scrutiny for their approach to the death penalty. After a 2022 execution was halted over failures to properly test the drugs, Lee paused all executions so the state could investigate and overhaul its lethal injection protocol.
- Executions resumed last year.
But more problems surfaced in 2026. Tennessee prison officials abruptly stopped another inmate's execution in May after staff had difficulties finding a vein for an IV line used in the lethal injection.
- Critics blasted prison officials for disregarding Pike's concerns that there might be similar problems during her execution.
Zoom out: Pike was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 beating death of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her legal team does not contest her guilt.
- Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, traveled to Nashville this week to witness the execution.
- "It was a mess," she told NBC News early Thursday. "They went to try to execute her, and she didn't die."
Martinez vented her anger with the governor and prison officials: "They f----- up."