Botched execution survivor Christa Pike blocked from comfier jail wing over horror accidents

Botched execution survivor Christa Pike is fighting to leave her prison sickbay for a comfier wing, but chiefs say her severe injuries require 24-hour care

Death row killer Christa Pike is locked in a fierce legal war to get moved into a cushier prison block – but officials insist her horrific injuries mean she is going nowhere. The 50-year-old, who was slapped with the death penalty for the sadistic 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, cheated death on September 30 when bungling executioners injected her with two doses of pentobarbital.

The botched procedure sparked national outrage and forced Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to slam the brakes on all state executions until the end of the year.

Legal filings obtained by The New York Post now reveal state attorneys are fighting tooth and nail to shut down her desperate bid for a transfer out of the infirmary at Nashville’s Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.

Pike has demanded a move to Unit 3A, an assisted-living wing, after her legal team argued that keeping her shut away in a sickbay breaches a 2024 legal pact by stripping her of communal meal times and chats with fellow cons.

In scathing court documents, state chiefs rubbished the claims, writing: “[Pike] thinks she knows better than her treating providers and [Tennessee Department of Corrections] officials about how to treat her medical needs while keeping her safe and secure.”

Lawyers for the state fired back that Pike is not being singled out, adding: “Pike is not isolated or singled out for poor treatment. On the contrary, she has received visits from counsel and her spiritual advisor, and she is subject to the same visitation policies and procedures as any other inmate in the infirmary.”

Her spiritual guide, Buddhist guru Rev Mikey Noechel of East Nashville’s Wild Heart Meditation Center, had planned to accompany her into the death chamber before the procedure descended into chaos.

“We’ll be walking in with this practice of loving kindness, blessing the whole room with loving kindness,” he said ahead of the execution attempt.

Medics say Pike was left nursing catastrophic internal burns, nerve damage and severe brain trauma from the lethal injection fiasco.

In a sworn declaration seen by The Post, Tennessee Department of Correction chief medical officer Dr Eduardo Ortiz warned that the killer requires round-the-clock access to life-saving equipment and specialist staff.

Ortiz confirmed Pike is examined every day, but admitted he cannot set any date for her release from the medical ward.

Prison bosses argue that while Unit 3A helps inmates with mobility issues, it operates like a care home rather than a hospital and cannot handle Pike’s complex trauma.

Pike remains condemned to die, with prison chiefs yet to schedule a new date for her execution.