Christa Pike: Death row inmate ‘conscious and speaking’ after failed execution, lawyer says
Christa Pike had been receiving critical medical treatment in the hospital after she survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
US death row inmate Christa Pike is awake and speaking almost a week after a failed execution attempt at a Tennessee prison, her lawyers say.
Pike, 50, is receiving critical medical treatment at a hospital in Nashville after she survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital on September 30, according to a statement from her attorneys, as cited by the BBC.
Her lawyers previously said Pike was unconscious as medical staff worked to removed the drug, a short-acting barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system, from her system after it was unsuccessful.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The attorneys described her recovery as “medically unprecedented,” while warning that her long-term prognosis remains uncertain. They said she is expected to face a long road to recovery.
She was serving a death sentence following her conviction for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and tortured Slemmer before killing her after the three met at a job-training programme for troubled teenagers.
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