‘There is no precedent’: US murderer Christa Pike unconscious on ventilator after botched execution

Washington, October 3 - Christa Pike, a convicted murderer in the United States, is currently unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator following a failed execution attempt through lethal injection, according to her legal team. On Wednesday, Tennessee prison officials administered two lethal doses of the toxic drug pentobarbital to Pike in an effort to execute her for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.

However, witnesses reported that Pike remained conscious for a longer duration than anticipated and was later heard "loudly snoring" before being airlifted to a nearby hospital. As of Thursday evening, Pike remains "critically ill" and is being treated at a hospital in Nashville, per her lawyer, Luke Ihnen. Pike's attorney stated that the medical team is "working to save Ms. Pike's life" after she arrived at the hospital with swollen, burned, and blistered arms.

In a separate court filing, Pike's legal team argued that the state had no duty to provide life-saving care to Pike once the execution had gone awry. The Slemmer family, including Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, expressed anger and demanded an apology from the state, emphasizing their desire for justice. The Tennessee Department of Corrections claimed it had followed the state's lawful execution protocol, while the state's Republican governor, Bill Lee, suspended all executions for the remainder of the year pending a review.

This incident marks the second failed execution in Tennessee this year, with the previous one involving Tony Carruthers in May due to medical staff' inability to locate a vein. Pike's lawyers have argued for clemency, citing her young age and mental health issues at the time of the crime, as well as her history of childhood sexual assault and post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, this event is unprecedented and unlike any other botched execution in modern US history. US President Donald Trump questioned the feasibility of such an execution, while UN rights chief Volker Turk urged Tennessee not to attempt another execution on Pike. If the drugs had succeeded, Pike would have been the first female execution in Tennessee in over two centuries. In the United States, only 18 women have been executed since 1976.