'Don't Know Why I Survived': Christa Pike's First Words After Failed Execution In US
Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Slemmer's mother travelled from Florida to witness Pike's execution.
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, 50, has issued her first public statement after surviving a botched execution attempt involving two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. In a statement dictated to her legal team, Pike said she has been in constant physical and mental pain since the incident and expressed being deeply hurt by the incompetence that led to the failure.
While PBS NewsHour reports she entered the execution chamber prepared to die in peace, DW News and DW English (Top Stories) note that her lawyers are seeking to have her death sentence reduced to life imprisonment.
Pike was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer to death in 1995, an act that made her one of the youngest women sentenced to death, according to NDTV and Global News. Following the failed lethal injection, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a third-party investigation and ruled that remaining state executions scheduled for this year will not take place, according to Global News.
Brief written by urgent.news from NDTV, Global News, PBS NewsHour, DW News, DW English (Top Stories) — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
