United States death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious after failed execution

United States death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and able to speak in hospital after surviving a failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week, her lawyers stated on Tuesday. The BBC, theliberal.ie, the Daily Mail, and the New York Post all reported that the 50-year-old remains in critical care while handcuffed at a hospital in Nashville. [1][2][3][4][8][9][10][11][12]

Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital during the attempt at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, according to the BBC, theliberal.ie, and the New York Post. The BBC reported that medical staff had been working to clear the pentobarbital from her body while she was treated in hospital. [1][2][4]

Pike was convicted for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee, when Pike was 18 years old. A Knox County jury sentenced her to death in March 1996, making her one of the youngest women to receive a death sentence in the United States since 1976. [1][13][14]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned following the failed execution. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions in the state for the rest of the year pending an investigation into the incident. [15][16]