US execution survivor critically ill after botched lethal injection

A woman on death row in Tennessee survived two lethal injections during an execution attempt and is now in critical condition in a hospital. Christa Pike, 50, was given a drug called pentobarbital, which is meant to shut down the nervous system, but she did not die. As of October 4, her lawyer said she was still on a ventilator — a machine that helps her breathe — and doctors were not sure what would happen next.

Pike's attorney, Stephen Ferrell, spoke on CNN about her condition. He said he had not been able to visit her in the hospital because she is under guard. Ferrell told reporters, 'She's still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill. We don't really know the prognosis yet, and may not know for several days.' Doctors are still trying to remove the drug from her body while keeping her safe.

Ferrell called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to show mercy. He argued that Pike should not be executed again after going through such a painful experience. 'I think, at the very least, the governor should commute Ms Pike's death sentence to a life sentence,' he said. Commuting a sentence means changing it to something less severe — in this case, swapping a death sentence for life in prison.

Media witnesses were present at the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. They reported hearing Pike snoring for about an hour after she received the injections. She was still alive when the witnesses were led out of the viewing room. The fact that she survived shocked people across the country and drew widespread attention to the case.

After the failed execution, Tennessee's prison chief resigned from his job. Frank Strada, the head of the Tennessee Department of Correction, stepped down on September 3. In his resignation statement, Strada said the department had followed all of its rules and procedures. Governor Lee has paused all other executions in the state until an outside group can review what happened.

Pike's case also brought up bigger questions about who should face the death penalty. She was only 18 years old when she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp in 1995. Her lawyers had previously asked for clemency — meaning forgiveness or a lighter punishment — pointing to her young age at the time of the crime, a difficult childhood, and mental health struggles such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, with Pike fighting for her life in a hospital, those questions are being asked again across the United States.