Christa Pike survived Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, but her legal team says she is now coping with “profound psychological trauma.”
Pike’s attorneys said she has made a “remarkable” physical recovery since the botched lethal injection on Sept. 30.
“Today, she is walking with some assistance, and her arms—which sustained significant injuries during the execution attempt—are healing and regaining movement and strength,” her attorneys said in an update Oct. 8. “Her lungs are clear and she has started to eat a regular diet. Physicians are encouraged by her physical recovery.”
The extent of the ordeal’s lasting effects on her mental health, however, is still uncertain.
“Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die,” her attorneys said. “We cannot yet know the full emotional and psychological toll of that experience or how long it will take her to begin to heal.”
They also reported that Pike continues to experience problems with memory and concentration. Her doctors, they said, have warned that it could take months to determine whether she suffered permanent cognitive damage.
Pike’s lawyers again urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to reduce her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Christa has endured more than enough,” they said, insisting that she “should never be subjected to another execution attempt.”
Will Christa Pike Be Executed Again?
It is not yet known whether Tennessee plans to try to execute Pike again.
At an emergency hearing on Oct. 8, Judge I’Ashea Myles asked whether a new execution date would be set. Assistant Attorney General William Ayers responded, “I can’t answer that question,” according to The New York Post.
For the time being, Lee has halted all additional executions scheduled for the remainder of the year and ordered an independent investigation into the failed procedure. Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is also expected to leave his position this month.
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The state administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital to Pike on the night of Sept. 30. When she remained alive, she was taken to a hospital for emergency treatment.
Her attorneys initially believed she had little chance of surviving or making a meaningful recovery.
“On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day,” attorney Randy Spivey said during an Oct. 7 press conference streamed by NBC News. “But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking.”
Pike is believed to be the only person known to have survived an execution by lethal injection.
Mother of Victim Colleen Slemmer Speaks Out
Although Pike’s unexpected recovery has drawn widespread media coverage, the mother of her victim says the attention has overshadowed her daughter’s memory. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
“The criminals get so much attention. Why?” May Martinez told WBIR. “[Colleen] has been lost in this.”
Martinez recalled Slemmer as a warm, outgoing teenager who enjoyed working with computers.
“She did a lot of work with autistic kids,” Martinez said. “Kids that were in wheelchairs; she would feed them every day at lunchtime, take time out of her lunch from school and take them down.”
In a statement issued Oct. 8, Pike’s attorneys said she remains concerned about other people, including members of Colleen Slemmer’s family, as she recovers from the failed execution.