Christina Pike Regains Consciousness After Surviving Failed Lethal Injection in U.S. Death Penalty Execution
Image Source, Tennessee Department of Corrections
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In Tennessee, United States, a prisoner who survived a failed lethal injection last week during the execution of the death penalty has reportedly regained consciousness and begun speaking, according to her lawyers.
The 50-year-old Christina Pike is currently undergoing intensive care while handcuffed, as stated in a release issued on Tuesday.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
During the execution attempt last Wednesday, two lethal injections were administered but failed to take effect.
Subsequently, while being transported to the hospital, doctors removed the lethal drugs from her body.
Experts and Pike’s legal team have described the improvement in her condition as ‘unprecedented.’ It has been noted that no other individual has survived such a lethal injection to date.
Pike’s attorney called her health recovery “medically unprecedented.”
While a full prognosis remains unclear, “we at least expect long-term recovery,” they said.
Debra Denno, a professor in the Department of Criminology at Fordham University, expressed she was “completely astonished” to hear that Pike had regained consciousness and was able to speak.
Background of the Incident
At 18 years old, Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaril Ship had brutally beaten and tortured 19-year-old Slemmer to death.
Last Wednesday’s execution attempt was the final legal battle for Pike, with the U.S. Supreme Court having approved the death penalty method.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, who came to Tennessee to witness the process, described the failed attempt to NBC News as “chaotic.”
According to Pike’s attorney, Randy Spivey, despite receiving a second dose of the lethal drug, Pike was clearly breathing a few minutes later and was taken to a dark room behind a curtain.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections defended its procedures in the matter.
In a statement, it said: “The state’s legal and established death penalty protocol was followed step by step and approved by the Attorney General’s office.”
Court documents indicate that since the first attempt was not successful, in accordance with state procedure, Pike was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital, but she survived.
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