There is a particular strangeness in the recovery of a person who was supposed to die—a strangeness that is not about the justice of her sentence but about the fact that the state tried to kill her, that it failed, and that she is now walking, talking, and slowly recovering from an ordeal that was meant to be her last. In Tennessee, that strangeness has now become a reality. Christa Pike, who survived a botched execution on September 30, is now walking, according to her lawyer, who spoke to the BBC.
Pike, 50, was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, a crime committed when Pike was eighteen. She was sentenced to death and spent nearly three decades on death row. On September 30, Tennessee attempted to execute her by lethal injection. The execution team struggled to establish IV lines for more than an hour. Two doses of pentobarbital were administered. Pike survived, breathing in a rhythmic, snoring pattern for more than an hour before being transported to a hospital.
Her lawyer, Kelley Henry, told the BBC that Pike is now able to walk and is slowly recovering. She remains hospitalized but is no longer on a ventilator. Her condition has improved enough that she can move on her own. Henry said Pike is "angry and confused" about what happened and that she has not been able to speak with her attorneys about the execution chamber because she was intubated. The recovery is a relief to her family, but it is also a reminder of the trauma she endured.
The failed execution has prompted a state investigation, a pause on all executions in Tennessee through the end of the year, and calls for a moratorium on the death penalty nationwide. Governor Bill Lee has ordered a third-party review and said he is "disturbed" by what happened. Pike's attorneys have called on Lee to commute her sentence, saying she has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.
The case has raised questions about the state's execution protocol, about the training of the execution team, and about the availability of lethal injection drugs. It has also renewed the debate over whether the death penalty can be administered humanely—or whether the inherent difficulties of the process make it impossible to guarantee. For Pike, the recovery is a gift that she did not expect. She was supposed to be dead. Instead, she is walking. The investigation continues. And the state that tried to kill her is now investigating how it failed.
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Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Associated Press, Nashville Banner
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