A Tennessee death row inmate, Christa Pike, has regained consciousness and is speaking six days after surviving a failed lethal injection execution, her lawyers have confirmed.
Pike, 50, remains in hospital receiving critical medical care after officials attempted to execute her last week. Her attorneys said she is now conscious and able to speak, although her long-term prognosis remains uncertain.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” her legal team said in a statement. They added that she had suffered severe injuries to her arms and was still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
The execution attempt on September 30 reportedly involved two doses of pentobarbital. However, the procedure failed to kill Pike after execution officials struggled to establish intravenous access. Her lawyer said at least seven needles were used while trying to find a suitable vein.
Pike was eventually taken to a Nashville-area hospital after remaining alive following the execution attempt. She spent several days unconscious and on a ventilator before her latest improvement.
Her lawyers had previously warned Tennessee authorities about difficulties with Pike’s veins. They now believe problems with the IV lines may have prevented the drug from being properly delivered into her bloodstream.
The development has raised unprecedented legal and medical questions, with experts describing Pike as the first known person in the United States to survive after execution drugs were administered as part of a completed lethal-injection attempt.
Following the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted further executions in the state and ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.
The state’s Department of Correction Commissioner, Frank Strada, has also announced his resignation amid the growing scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Pike’s lawyers are asking Governor Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. They are also seeking to preserve physical, written and electronic evidence connected to the failed execution.
Her attorneys said Pike’s recovery remains uncertain and is expected to be lengthy.
