Christa Pike’s dwelling hell revealed – blood clot, haunting questions and what’s subsequent
Christa Pike’s lawyers have issued a bombshell update on the Death Row killer after she woke up and started talking following her botched lethal injection attempt
Christa Pike, 50(Image: Tennessee Department of Correction/AFP via Getty Images)
Christa Pike’s lawyers have given an insight into her horrific condition – a week after the convicted murderer survived a botched execution.
The Death Row killer regained consciousness and is now ‘speaking limitedly’ despite a double dose of lethal injections in a “medically unprecedented” series of events.
However Pike – who was sentenced to death for the 1995 slaying of classmate Colleen Slemmer – has been left with ‘tremendously swollen’ arms and is unable to swallow.
Here is everything we know about her health condition as she remains in hospital – and what could happen next.
Pike’s current condition
Pike’s lawyers said on Monday doctors feared she could be brain dead -yet 24 hours later she miraculously woke up and started talking.
Emergency vehicles arriving at the prison after the failed execution(Image: AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Pike’s family members have stated that the hospital was going to take her off of her ventilator before she regained consciousness. Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s lawyers, stated: “On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day.
“But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking. I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is Christa has a long road to recovery.”
He added: “’She has a blood clot in one of her arms. She has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten.’
‘She cannot move either of her arms. Both of her arms and hands are tremendously swollen, and we do not know what, if any, function she will regain. She is shackled at her feet and on her right arm.”
Two questions
Luke Ihnen attorney for Christa Pike (Image: George Walker IV/Pool AP via AP)
Pike’s defence lawyer has revealed she asked two chilling questions after she regained consciousness. Spivey said upon waking up Pike asked: “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
He added she was “angry and confused” and was “very aware that the state tried to execute her”.
In a court hearing Pike’s lawyers revealed she was cuffed to her hospital bed. Pike’s legal team requested the judge to order the shackles to be removed and for her to be allowed phone access.
Judge I’Ashea Myles did not rule on these request. The judge asked Pike’s lawyers to provide more information on how Pike could use the phone in hospital. And to also prove that medical staff wanted her cuffs to be removed.
Why do experts think Pike survived?
On Wednesday the court heard Pike has narrow veins and had struggled with drawing blood before, with staff often using a butterfly needle. Reports suggest she had even asked to be hanged instead.
Luke Ihnen, one of Christa Pike’s lawyers, speaking in court
Pike’s lawyer Luke Ihnen stated she had a “history of difficulty with blood draws and needle insertion”. He added: “Prison medical staff often use a butterfly needle on her arm to draw blood, because her veins are so difficult to access.”
He stated that she may survive again if another lethal injection execution was to be scheduled.
Why is Pike on Death row?
Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and slaying of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was age 18 at the time and became one of the youngest women put on death row.
May Martinez, the mother of Pike’s murder victim Colleen Slemmer, revealed she had a premonition that Pike would survive. She also expressed doubt that Tennessee will make another attempt to execute her daughter’s killer, in an interview with NBC affiliate WBIR.
Christa Gail Pike murdered Colleen Slemmer (Image: WVLT 8)
May has also expressed her outrage at Pike’s survival. She stated: “If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen. “
The heartbroken mother has now been deprived of over 30 years of memories. She stated: “Well, you miss a lot. You miss the holidays, you miss the birthdays, you miss Mother’s Days and stuff like that.”
Other methods
Following her botched execution Tennessee’s top Republicans said they want to explore alternative ways of executing death row inmates.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, said Pike’s unsuccessful execution by lethal injection last week “should not be grounds to halt carrying out the death penalty .” Instead she stated Tennessee needs to re-evaluate the way it does executions.
Other methods may be used to execute Pike if a third execution attempt is launched (Image: WVLT 8)
Speaking to The Associated Press Blackburn said: “If it’s lethal injection, if it is electric chair , what we do know is we have to find a way to do this – and do it successfully.”
House Speaker Cameron Sexton stated: “We want to broaden it, include more methods.” He added: “What those are as of today, I’m not sure. But I don’t think there’s any method that’s off the table at this point.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all further executions following Pike’s hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”
