Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row inmate who survived a botched lethal injection attempt last month, has filed an emergency motion in federal court to block prison officials from sending her back to her former housing unit.
Pike, 50, remains in solitary confinement in the infirmary at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where she has been recovering from the September 30 execution attempt. Two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her, and she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.
In her filing, Pike says her body is too weak to defend itself and that returning her to the unit where she lived for two years would put her life at risk.
“This pod houses inmates with significant histories of assaults and disciplinary problems. In my two years living in this pod… I witnessed multiple assaults by close custody inmates of other inmates and guards, multiple individuals who were undergoing acute psychological breakdowns, and significant danger.”
She goes further, describing exactly what she fears would happen to her if moved now.
“In my current physical condition, I could not defend myself or get away if another inmate attacked me. I am afraid that I will be seriously hurt if I am moved to that pod while I am this weak.”
The motion also raises sanitation concerns, claiming the unit’s shower is “roach-infested” and that Pike would be forced to clean and use it on her own while still recovering, putting her at a “high risk of infection and further injury,” according to the New York Post.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow participant with her in a Job Corps training program in Knoxville. In 2001, she picked up an additional conviction for the attempted murder of another inmate.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered a temporary halt to all executions in the state following the failed attempt on Pike, pending an investigation into what went wrong.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Tennessee Department of Correction for comment.
