Christa Pike is unconscious on ventilator with terribly-burned arms after failed execution attempt that saw seven needles plunged into her body, killer’s lawyers say

Christa Pike remains in a hospital, where she is unconscious and on a ventilator, with severe burns on her arms after her botched execution, her lawyers say.

Her attorneys filed an emergency motion on Friday seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to protect and preserve all evidence related to the State’s failed execution.

Pike, 50, was injected by at least seven needles on Wednesday as medical staff attempted to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital, according to the filing.

‘At one point, Ms Pike herself offered guidance on where the IV team could attempt access; one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed,’ the motion stated.

Her lawyers stated she was administered two sets of syringes of the lethal drug and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly throughout the process.

During the procedure, she said, ‘my arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’ and at another point, asked, ‘does this happen like that?’

As of Thursday night, she remains critically ill and is being treated at a Nashville-area hospital where she is ‘intubated, on a ventilator, and remains unconscious,’ her attorneys said. 

The killer had been on death row for 30 years since she was convicted of the 1995 murder of her Knoxville Jobs Corp classmate Colleen Slemmer. 

Christa Pike remains in a hospital, where she is unconscious and on a ventilator, with severe burns on her arms after her botched execution, her lawyers say

Pike was taken to the hospital after she was administered two sets of syringes of the lethal drug and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly throughout the procedure

Her lawyers wrote that upon arrival at the hospital, both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered from the drug, which they compared to bleach or Drano, the chemical used to clear clogged household drains and pipes.

Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

‘Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,’ the lawyers wrote in the court filing.

They wrote that, instead of ‘remedying this failure,’ they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.

Her lawyers are seeking to have all of the evidence from her botched execution preserved so they can ensure accountability and protect her legal rights. 

‘We are working closely with those closest to Christa to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time,’ said Luke Ihnen, attorney for Pike with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.

‘We ask that the public and the media respect that privacy as well.’ 

In the court filing, her lawyers emphasized that Pike previously filed an appeal claiming her execution would result in cruel and unusual punishment because of her er individual physical characteristics, including thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and small veins.

The killer had been on death row for 30 years since she was convicted of the 1995 murder of her Knoxville Jobs Corp classmate Colleen Slemmer

During the procedure, Pike said, ‘my arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’ and at another point, asked, ‘does this happen like that?’

Her lawyers emphasized that Pike previously filed an appeal claiming her execution would result in cruel and unusual punishment

‘Her concerns were called ‘speculation’; they were laughed off, scoffed at, and dismissed,’ the lawyers wrote.

‘In the words of one media witness: we have a lot of questions, and the Department of Correction has a lot of answers that it needs to provide to the public about what happened here. We agree.’

Pike received the death sentence in 1996 and would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.

Instead, the case marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, and Governor Bill Lee halted any additional executions for the year and ordered ‘a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.’

The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.

Tennessee announced in 2024 that it was switching from a three-drug series for lethal injections to the single drug pentobarbital. 

This is a breaking news story.