Woman remains on ventilator in Tennessee after botched execution attempt

Christa Pike, 50, remains hospitalized and unconscious, connected to a machine helping her breathe, following a failed attempt to execute her in Tennessee on Wednesday, according to a court filing from her attorneys on Friday. As of late Thursday, hospital staff were still working to save her life and clear the lethal drug pentobarbital from her system.

Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital during the botched execution attempt. Her attorneys believe problems with her intravenous lines caused the drug to enter her body's tissue rather than her bloodstream. They wrote that no member of the execution team appeared to realize the IV lines were improperly placed or that her veins had failed, allowing the drug to miss its intended path. Rather than stopping to fix the problem, the team proceeded to prepare and administer a backup set of syringes.

In a statement shared by a journalist on social media, Pike's attorneys described her as critically ill and receiving medical treatment for the effects of Wednesday night's events. They said they were working with those close to her to respect her wishes and protect her privacy as a patient, and asked the public and media to do the same.

Case background

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 at age 20 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she killed along with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, at a job training camp in Knoxville. A disturbing detail of the case was that a satanic symbol had been carved into the victim's chest.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last time a woman was executed in Tennessee was in 1820, meaning Pike would have been the first woman executed in the state in more than two centuries. The failed execution has prompted lawyers, doctors and faith leaders to call for a moratorium on the death penalty in the United States.