US death row inmate Christa Pike conscious after failed execution, lawyers say

Image source, Tennessee Department of CorrectionsBySareen HabeshianPublished6 October 2026, 21:55 BSTUpdated 4 minutes agoUS death row inmate Christa Pike is "conscious and speaking" after her failed execution attempt, her lawyers say.Pike, 50, continues to receive critical medical care while handcuffed in hospital, according to a statement from her attorneys on Tuesday. She was sentenced to death following her conviction for murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995. But Pike survived two lethal injections last week and was transferred to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, for treatment. Her lawyers had said in the days afterwards that she was unconscious while medical staff cleared her body of the pentobarbitol injected during the failed execution attempt. Pike's lawyers said on Tuesday that her recovery is "medically unprecedented", and while her prognosis remains unclear, "at a minimum, we expect a long recovery".They said she is the only person known to have survived a completed execution attempt in the US.Authorities have not yet said whether they will try again to execute Pike. They have also not offered an explanation for what went wrong. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all executions for the rest of the year - and the head of prisons in the state said over the weekend that he plans to resign.Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for troubled teens.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X, external to get the latest alerts.Related topicsTennessee