Who is Christa Pike? The woman on death row in Tennessee who survived her attempted execution by lethal injection

This Thursday, October 1, the lawyers for Christa Gail Pike, 50, report that their client has survived the lethal injection administered in Tennessee , whose authorities gave her two doses of pentobarbital. The inmate, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995, had to be transferred to a hospital from the prison.

According to the lawyers' account, Pike has remained alive despite the two doses and snored after being administered the lethal injection. Faced with this situation, and after an hour of proceedings , it was interrupted to take the inmate to a hospital. Had it been completed, Pike would have been the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.

The executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, Robin M. Maher, has described what happened as “unique and unprecedented” . On previous occasions, survival occurred because professionals were unable to access a vein, but not in the way it happened with Pike.

The step-by-step account of the failed execution attempt against Pike

The execution attempt took place last Tuesday before a large group of journalists. At around 7:27 p.m., the curtains were raised and Pike could be seen strapped to the gurney . She was then given the first dose and, according to witnesses, the inmate asked about the way her arm felt. At 8:26 p.m., she was administered a second dose, and although they had closed the curtain, they say that she could still be heard . The microphone stopped working at 8:53 p.m. and the journalists were removed.

Christa Gail Pike was sentenced in 1995 after taking the life of Colleen Slemmer, a woman she knew at the job training center that both attended in Knoxville at the time. Pike was only 18 years old when the terrible crime occurred for which she was ultimately sentenced to death.