The saga involving death row inmate Christa Pike just took another dark turn. Pike was set to be executed last Wednesday (September 30). However, the attempted execution went awry. The death row inmate survived not one, but two lethal injections.
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Christa Pike May Never Recover From Botched Execution
Now, in the latest update, Pike remains unconscious in a hospital room. And her defense attorney Stephen Ferrell says that she may never fully recover.
"We don't know right now, and we may never know, what sort of torture she endured during that process," Ferrell told Jake Tapper on CNN Sunday, October 4 (via New York Post).
Ferrell also described the convicted murderer's condition as "critically ill" and said that they may not know the true extent of her injuries for "several days."
"It remains to be seen what the future is," he continued. "I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don't know what the prognosis is — as in, the long-term prognosis. If she recovers — she may not fully recover. And there may be issues about her competence. We just don't know any of this."
Pike and her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryll Shipp, were found guilty of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Slemmer, Shipp, and Pike were all classmates at the Knoxville Job Corps.
Ahead of her execution, Pike has admitted her guilt. Still, her attorneys have argued that the crime she committed is not worthy of the death penalty. This is because she was still a teen at the time of the murder. Additionally, her attorneys cited that she was navigating through "untreated mental illness" due to a "childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect."
No decision has been made on what the next steps will be after her botched execution.
