Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say
Add to GoogleBotched execution of death row inmate01:33Get more newsonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleBy Jesse Kirsch, Rebecca Cohen and Abigail BrooksChrista Pike, the woman who survived an execution attempt in Tennessee earlier this week, is on a ventilator as she receives care in the hospital, her lawyers said in a new statement Friday.
“Christa remains critically ill and is receiving medical care for the devastating effects of Wednesday night’s events,” the lawyers’ statement said. “She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator.”
The statement said she is being treated for “the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Wednesday.Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY Network via ReutersThe state of Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She has been on death row for decades, and would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.
But she survived two lethal doses of the drug, and was rushed to the hospital, where she has been since.
Pike’s attorneys, Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen, detailed her condition in a new filing Friday. It asks the state to preserve all evidence from the failed execution attempt.
In a statement, they said the filing “details the serious complications that occurred during the execution attempt, many of which Christa and her attorneys had warned the State and the courts about months earlier.”
Christa Pike in 2023. Tennessee Dept. of Correction via APAt a news conference Thursday, Ferrell and another of Pike’s attorneys, Randall Spivey, detailed how the execution attempt went wrong. Spivey, who was in the room, recalled Pike saying she was in pain, and like she felt like her arm was about to “explode.”
The filing adds that the process “lasted longer than two hours, and Pike’s legal team filed emergency motions to halt the execution in multiple courts before the prison called an ambulance.”
“Even then,” it continues, “attorneys for the State of Tennessee argued that TDOC had no obligation to render life-saving care to Ms. Pike.”
NBC News earlier reported that there was no emergency medical oxygen in the execution room in case something went wrong. Medical professionals had to retrieve it from elsewhere.
Pike was convicted in the 1995 murder case. She and two other teenage accomplices worked together to torture, slash and fatally beat Colleen Slemmer, Knoxville police said at the time. Pike was sentenced to death. A number of last-minute legal efforts to stop Pike’s execution were unsuccessful.
Jesse Kirsch is a correspondent based in Miami reporting across all NBC News platforms.
Rebecca CohenRebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Abigail BrooksAbigail Brooks is a producer for NBC News.
