She received two doses of the drug in a failed attempt by the state of Tennessee to execute her on Wednesday, September 31.
Pike remains on a ventilator with hospital staff working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system, her attorneys said, according to The Guardian. There is renewed interest in Christa Pike’s life, including in her biological mother Carissa Hansen, after her failed execution in Tennessee.
Pike’s attorneys stated in a court filing that they believed problems with intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream. Hansen’s past court testimonies and recent clemency statements have re-emerged after Pike’s failed execution. Hansen is originally from Texas, where she currently resides. During Pike’s early childhood, Hansen moved between states like West Virginia and North Carolina, per Clarin.
In the 1996 trial for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, Hansen testified that Pike was unmanageable, had dropped out of high school, stole from family members, and grew marijuana at the age of nine. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 in connection with the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer . Pike was 20 at the time. The Death Penalty Information Center states that the last execution of a woman in Tennessee was in 1820. This means Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years.
Hansen now quietly resides in Texas, Clarin reported, according to public court and property records. However, she also admitted under oath that she routinely prioritized her romantic partners over Pike. She did not publicly speak out after Pike’s botched execution attempt.
