Christa Pike was set to become the first woman executed in the US state of Tennessee in more than 200 years. Pike and her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, killed Slemmer at a job training camp in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an independent review.
The Tennessee woman's legal team says doctors are working to clear doses of the drug pentobarbital from her system. During the execution attempt, prison officials tried to start intravenous lines by using at least seven needles on Pike. Pike's attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the lethal drug, called pentobarbital, to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
She is believed to be the first person to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs in the modern era of the death penalty. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 at the age of 20 in connection with the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google so you'll always see our verified news first. Pike's attorneys said in the court filing that the Tennessee Department of Correction IV team used at least seven needles to try to carry out the execution.
