A poll reveals one in three Americans back a second execution for death row killer Christa Pike as her lawyer confirms she is speaking in full sentences after a botched lethal injection
One in three people believe death row killer Christa Pike should face a second execution attempt after miraculously surviving two lethal injections, a survey has revealed. The 50-year-old cheated death on September 30 when prison officials halted her botched execution in Tennessee.
The failure made her the first inmate in US history to survive being administered two lethal injections. A fresh Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,679 American adults now shows that roughly 33 per cent back another bid to end her life.
The study found 39 per cent believe surviving death row inmates should instead serve out their days behind bars, while 26 per cent were undecided.
The poll also highlighted a broader shift in public mood, with general support for capital punishment dropping from 63 per cent in 2017 down to 55 per cent.
The findings come as Pike’s legal team revealed the convict has made a astonishing recovery, speaking in full sentences just over a month after her ordeal.
Her lawyer told TMZ her mobility has dramatically improved, noting she can walk better unassisted and her speech has cleared up “considerably.”
However, medical staff are still closely monitoring her cognitive and psychological health, with long-term brain damage remaining a concern.
Pike was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after absorbing two doses of pentobarbital. Doctors initially told her legal team she was brain-dead and just hours away from having her life support switched off.
“To the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,” her attorney Randy Spivey said.
Waking up hooked to a ventilator on October 6, the killer’s first words were: “Where am I and who are you?” before asking about her teenage victim’s family.
She also suffered severe pneumonia, a blood clot in her arm and was left unable to eat, while her hands ballooned with “extraordinary” swelling that “looked like if you were to blow up a surgical glove.”
Despite her physical trauma, she was discharged on October 10 and returned to prison. Pike was just 18 when she tortured and murdered classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19, in Knoxville, Tennessee, during a jealous rage in 1995.
After confessing to premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy, she became the youngest woman handed a death sentence in modern US history.
She was slated to become the first female executed in the state in over 200 years before the botched execution.
The state fallout was swift. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all remaining executions for the year and launched an independent investigation led by former US attorney Ed Stanton.
State prison boss Frank Strada resigned, saying it was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” to step down. If Pike faces a second execution, she won’t be the first.
Alabama prisoner Kenneth Eugene Smith survived a failed lethal injection in 2022 when officials couldn’t set an IV line. Judges deemed a second attempt lawful, and he was executed using nitrogen gas in 2024.
Pike’s legal team has now begged Governor Lee to commute her sentence to life, arguing she has “endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”