Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed on September 30, but survived two attempts to put her to death by lethal injection. Now, newly revealed legal filings have shed light on a rare form of blood cancer she was diagnosed with months before the execution.
Christa Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. After nearly 30 years on death row, her execution was scheduled for September 30. But the procedure did not go as planned, and Pike survived two attempts at lethal injection before being rushed to the hospital.
She is currently recovering from the botched execution and was transferred back to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville on October 9.
Newly revealed court documents show that Pike had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer months before the failed execution, according to UNILAD.
According to the filings, Pike’s legal team had informed officials that she was suffering from a myeloproliferative disorder, a rare type of cancer that affects the production of blood cells, nearly nine months before her scheduled execution.
Her lawyers argued that the underlying condition substantially increased the risk of serious complications during Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure. They warned that proceeding with the execution could cause ‘unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace’.
Christa Pike health update after failed execution
In an earlier court filing, Pike’s defense team also raised concerns that her blood disorder could cause fluid to accumulate in her lungs during the lethal injection procedure, potentially leading to pulmonary edema.
“A pulmonary edema is not simply painful or uncomfortable; it can create a sense of suffocating or drowning that has been likened by experts to the sensation intentionally induced by the practice of waterboarding – an unambiguous form of outright torture,” the legal complaint read, according to UNILAD.
Pike’s lawyers are now seeking to have her death sentence commuted to life in prison. The state has yet to rule on the request.
In a statement following the failed execution, Pike recently described the pain and distress she has continued to experience since waking up in hospital.
“Several days later I woke up alone in a hospital confused and in pain. There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak.”
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