Christa Pike, a 50-year-old Tennessee death-row inmate convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995, remains critically ill in hospital after surviving two attempts to execute her.
Pike’s lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, said doctors were still working to clear two doses of pentobarbital from her system and that her prognosis remains unclear.
“She’s still in the hospital, on a ventilator, critically ill, we really don’t know the prognosis yet, and may not know for several days,” Ferrell said.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was sentenced to death the following year.
Ferrell said he did not believe Pike had regained consciousness since the failed execution and called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment.
“She has endured a torturous attempt at executing her. She’s spent over 30 years in prison, most of that in solitary confinement,” he said.
Authorities have not said whether they will make another attempt to execute Pike or explained what went wrong during the procedure.
Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year, while the state’s prison commissioner has announced plans to resign.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, who supported Pike’s execution, said she broke down in tears after learning that the execution had failed.
Tennessee’s Department of Correction has defended its lethal-injection protocol, saying it does not allow for additional procedures beyond those already carried out.