American convicted murderer Christa Pike, whose execution in Tennessee last week failed in an unprecedented incident, leaving her sedated and on a ventilator in a hospital until she woke up Tuesday, was "angry and confused" in the hours after regaining consciousness. Her first questions were, "Where am I? Who are you?" her attorney, Randy Spivey, said Wednesday night.
Spivey said Pike, believed to be the first person to survive the administration of lethal drugs during an execution carried out by U.S. prison authorities, woke up six days after the execution attempt. Remarkably, she regained consciousness just as preparations were underway to remove her from life support amid fears she was brain-dead. "On Tuesday, to the shock of everyone … Christa woke up and began talking," he said.
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Victim Colleen Slemmer and convicted murderer Christa Pike. Pike's accomplice carved a symbol associated with Satan into the victim's body
Pike, whose case has received extensive international media coverage in recent days, was just 18 when she murdered her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, on January 12, 1995. Slemmer was enrolled alongside Pike and Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, in a vocational training program in Knoxville. According to prosecutors, Pike feared Slemmer was romantically interested in Shipp and, in a fit of jealousy and rage, lured her to a secluded area of the University of Tennessee campus, where she and Shipp brutally tortured and murdered her.
Among other acts of violence, Pike slashed Slemmer more than 100 times with a utility knife and struck her with a large piece of asphalt. Shipp carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body. The findings at the crime scene caused widespread alarm at the time against the backdrop of the "Satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States, when rumors circulated about satanic cults abducting people, including children, and subjecting them to ritual abuse.
Pike's 1996 death sentence made her one of the youngest women ever sent to death row in the United States. In subsequent years, however, her attorneys and supporters argued that the death penalty was excessive given her young age at the time of the crime and her untreated mental illness. They also pointed to a childhood marked by neglect and severe sexual abuse, including rapes at ages 11 and 17. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
One of Pike's current attorneys, Stephen Ferrell, emphasized that her defense team failed to present the jury with crucial information about her background during the sentencing phase of her trial and did not argue that her young age should be taken into account.
Ferrell noted that far more is now known about adolescent brain development and argued that Pike's death sentence was unusual and exceptional. He also pointed out that Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole because of his young age.
Christa Pike in 1996, after being sentenced to death. She was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years
Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee rejected Pike's request for clemency, and the Supreme Court denied a petition to stay her execution. Just an hour before the execution was originally scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Israel time Wednesday, another court unexpectedly issued a stay to consider several of Pike's arguments. A few hours later, however, the court allowed the execution to proceed.
Pike was therefore set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years and only the 19th woman ever executed in the United States.
Cognitive confusion and a blood clot in her arm
Pike's execution began overnight Wednesday into Thursday, Israel time. The execution team initially administered a dose of pentobarbital, the drug intended to kill her. When the drug failed to render her unconscious, the team administered a second dose, as required by protocol. But Pike survived that injection as well.
Witnesses who attended the execution, along with her attorneys, said that during the procedure she declared, "My arm feels like it's about to burst open," and at another point asked, "Does this happen like that?"
According to witnesses, Pike could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily throughout the procedure. Even as they were escorted out of the viewing room more than two hours after entering, they could still hear her snoring loudly behind the closed curtains.
Pike was taken to a hospital unconscious, with her arms swollen and covered in blisters caused by the injected drug, but still alive. She was intubated and placed on a ventilator.
Tadaryl Shipp, Pike's boyfriend at the time of the murder. He was 17 and received a life sentence
Pike's attorneys said they believe problems with the intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to enter her body tissue rather than her bloodstream.
"Apparently, at no point did any member of the execution team realise 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 attorneys wrote in a court filing.
The filing emphasized that Pike had previously appealed on the grounds that executing her would constitute cruel and unusual punishment because of her particular physical and medical conditions, including thrombocytosis, a condition involving an elevated platelet count, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and small veins.
Although Pike, now 50, has regained consciousness, many questions remain about her prospects for recovery. It is also unclear whether Tennessee will attempt to execute her again.
Her attorneys said Wednesday that she had suffered more than enough and called on the governor to commute her sentence in light of the circumstances.
They also reported Wednesday night that she remained unable to move her arms or swallow and was experiencing some degree of cognitive confusion. She also has pneumonia and a blood clot in her arm and faces a long road to recovery.
On Wednesday night, Pike's attorneys asked the court to order the removal of the restraints securing her to her hospital bed and to allow her access to a telephone. The judge has yet to rule on the request.
An ambulance called to the Nashville correctional facility following the botched execution
(Photo: AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who served as an expert consultant to Pike's legal team, said it could take weeks or months before anyone knows for certain what her recovery will look like and whether she could recover sufficiently for the state to attempt another execution.
In Texas, the injection worked: Death declared after 19 minutes
Following the botched execution, Tennessee Gov. Lee announced a suspension of executions in the state through the end of the year and ordered an independent investigation into Tennessee's death penalty system, to be led by former federal prosecutor Edward Stanton.
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced his resignation Saturday in the wake of the failure.
The botched execution became a major scandal, even prompting a response from President Donald Trump, who said the following day, "How does that happen? Should be easy to do. It shouldn't be very difficult."
Meanwhile, Texas carried out the first execution in the United States since Pike's failed execution in Tennessee.
Jamaal Howard, 46, a Texas man who fatally shot a convenience store clerk during a robbery in 2000, when he was 20, was executed by injection of pentobarbital, the same method used in Pike's attempted execution. He became the 30th person executed in the United States this year.
When the prison warden asked whether he wanted to make a final statement, Howard repeatedly apologized to several members of the victim's family, who watched through a window just a few feet from the execution chamber.
Jamaal Howard, executed in Texas. His attorneys tried to stop the execution until the last moment, arguing that he could suffer the same fate as Pike
"“I wish that you accept my apology and I wish for your forgiveness," Howard said shortly before the injection began. "I’m sorry for what happened. I wish you can learn to forgive me one of these days."
He also thanked his friends and family, told them he loved them and said he was in "a good state of mind to find peace and the Lord, so I thank y’all."
He concluded with the words, "Hey, enjoy life, and peace to y’all.."
As the pentobarbital began to take effect, Howard took two breaths and gasped. He then began making gurgling and snoring sounds, coughed and resumed snoring, with the sounds growing progressively quieter.
Within about 30 seconds, he had stopped moving entirely. He was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
Texas has executed six people so far in 2026 and plans to carry out two more executions before the end of the year.
Earlier Wednesday, Howard's attorneys tried to block his execution, arguing that he had an intellectual disability and faced risks similar to those that materialized in Pike's case because Texas, like Tennessee, uses pentobarbital in its lethal injections. Their efforts were unsuccessful.