Christa Pike is currently hospitalised, unconscious, and using a ventilator following a failed execution attempt in Tennessee, her attorneys confirmed in a court filing on Friday. Hospital staff are reportedly working to clear the pentobarbital from her system, which was administered late Thursday.
Pike received two doses of the drug during the state's attempt to execute her on Wednesday. Her attorneys suggest that issues with intravenous lines led to the pentobarbital flowing into her body rather than her bloodstream. They stated that the execution team proceeded with a backup set of syringes despite the apparent failure to correctly place the IV lines.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee. The failed execution has prompted calls for a moratorium on the death penalty in the US from lawyers, doctors, and faith community members.