Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is awake and speaking in a hospital six days after a failed lethal injection attempt, according to her attorneys on Tuesday. Pike, 50, had been scheduled to be executed for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. The update was reported by Headline USA and adapted from Associated Press reporting.
Lawyers: Two doses, burns, and shackles
Pike’s attorneys said she survived two doses of pentobarbital administered last Wednesday and that her arms were left burned and blistered. “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” they said in a statement. They added, “Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented.”
They also thanked first responders and the hospital team, saying staff “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care.” As recently as Sunday, her attorneys had said she remained unconscious and on a ventilator.
Medical outlook remains uncertain
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said the development “bodes well for a good recovery,” but cautioned it could take weeks or months to understand the extent of recovery and whether competency could be restored to a level that might allow the state to try again. “She’s still in the ICU,” he said. “She has recovered to a certain degree that she’s able to be off a ventilator and able to speak, but in no way would I announce her free of further serious risk.”
A Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson said Tuesday only that Pike remained hospitalized.
Wednesday hearing seeks answers
Pike’s attorneys are asking a court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence from the Sept. 30 attempted execution, including drug lot numbers and records. Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles scheduled a Wednesday morning status conference.
Executions paused, politics heat up
According to the reporting, outgoing Gov. Bill Lee halted further executions following Pike’s hospitalization and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to replace him, called on the state to explore other execution methods to ensure capital punishment can continue.
Pike’s attorneys said they continue to ask Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole.
Could Tennessee try again?
Fordham Law professor Deborah Denno said Pike has strong arguments that a second attempt would be cruel and unusual and might violate double jeopardy. She noted that while states have been allowed to try again after failing to establish an IV line, Pike is the first person to survive after the lethal drug was administered. “They carried out every aspect of the execution,” Denno said. “She didn’t die, but every process they intended, they did it.”
Seattle University Law Professor Michael Russo called the failed execution “horrible” but said he doubted the U.S. Supreme Court would stop the state on double-jeopardy grounds if it decided to proceed. “There’s nobody else in the history of the death penalty in this country who has gone through what she’s been through,” Russo said. “I think what this Supreme Court would say is, her sentence was to die — to be executed — not to suffer an attempt at execution.”
Reporting adapted from the Associated Press via Headline USA.
