Christa Pike Seeks to Block Prison Transfer After Sept. 30 Botched Execution
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Nov 3
Christa Pike Seeks to Block Prison Transfer After Sept. 30 Botched Execution
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 3
Summary
An emergency federal motion asks prison officials not to move Christa Pike, 50, from the infirmary back to her former housing block at Tennessee's Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
Pike says two doses of pentobarbital during her Sept. 30 execution attempt left her severely weakened, unable to defend herself, and at risk from inmates with assault histories in the unit.
The filing also cites unsanitary conditions — including a roach-infested shower she says she would have to clean and use alone — as a threat of infection and further injury during recovery.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer and was later convicted in 2001 of attempting to murder another inmate.
Her transfer fight follows Tennessee's statewide pause on executions, ordered by Gov. Bill Lee after the failed lethal injection that was to make Pike the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.