A dramatic development has emerged in the case of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike.
Pike, whose execution was halted after a series of medical complications on Sept. 30, is now conscious and able to speak, according to her attorneys.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys Randy Spivey, Kelly Gleason and Luke Ihnen told on Oct. 6. “Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed.”
“Her recovery is medically unprecedented,” the attorneys said. “Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Pike’s legal team also thanked people who sent messages of support, along with first responders and hospital staff. They said the medical team treated Pike “like a human” and has provided her with exceptional care.
The attorneys said they have asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to reduce Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
What Happened at Christa Pike’s Failed Execution?
The update comes six days after Pike survived two attempted lethal injections involving pentobarbital.
“They went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end,” WPLN reporter Catherine Sweeney, who witnessed the execution, said during a news conference that night. “It was very ragged. She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point. She said that there was a spot that was burning and hurting and asked if that was normal. None of it was normal. I covered all the executions last year and most of the ones this year. We haven’t seen anything like it.”
Following the injections, Pike’s attorneys received federal approval to halt the execution after reporting that she still had a heartbeat and had not lost consciousness, according to NBC News. She was then taken to a medical facility for intensive treatment.
After the failed execution, Gov. Lee ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” He also postponed the state’s remaining scheduled execution for the year.
In a Sept. 30 statement, the Tennessee Department of Correction said officials had followed the state’s “lawful, established protocol” in Pike’s case and maintained that the procedure has “consistently been effective.”
Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada later said he would resign, explaining that he believed leaving office was “in the best interest of Tennesseans,” according to CNN.
“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary,” Strada said. “I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.”
Pike’s attorneys have continued to challenge Tennessee’s execution procedures, arguing that the state “once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.”
“We take no pleasure in being right,” the attorneys wrote in a Sept. 30 statement. “But the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
Before the failed execution, Pike had spent decades on Tennessee’s death row following her conviction in the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.