Christa Pike, an inmate who survived Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said Tuesday evening.
The statement was the first indication that Pike has improved since an ambulance carried her away from a Nashville prison last Wednesday after she survived two doses of pentobarbital as Tennessee officials attempted to put her to death.
Although the lethal injection drug failed to end her life, her defense team said the procedure left her arms burned and blistered.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, making her one of the youngest women sent to death row in modern U.S. history.
Her execution was delayed for more than eight hours last Wednesday as the U.S. Supreme Court considered, and ultimately overturned, a federal appeals court ruling to halt her lethal injection so judges could review claims regarding childhood sexual abuse.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement. “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Her attorneys said they are grateful for the first responders and the medical team at the hospital “who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”
On Sunday, her lawyer, assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell, told CNN, “She's still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill. We don't really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several days.”
Asked at the time if she had regained consciousness, Ferrell replied: “Not that I’m aware of,” adding that doctors were still trying to clear the high barbiturate dosage out of her system.
Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiology and surgery professor in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said her recent progress “bodes well for a good recovery.”
However, Zivot cautioned that it could be weeks or months before the full extent of her recovery is known, including whether her mental competency could be restored to a level that would allow the state to attempt another execution, as reported by the Associated Press.
“She’s still in the ICU,” Zivot 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. There’s still a lot of bad things that can happen here, even when everyone is doing their job well.”
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction said she could provide no information other than confirming Pike remained hospitalized Tuesday.
Pike’s defense team is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning for a status conference before Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles. The attorneys are seeking a court order requiring state correction officials to preserve evidence from the execution attempt, including drug lot numbers and administrative records.
In their Tuesday statement, her lawyers renewed calls for outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without parole.
“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” they said.
Following Pike’s hospitalization, Lee halted all further executions and ordered a comprehensive third-party review into the execution attempt. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate running to replace Lee, urged the state to explore alternative execution methods to ensure capital punishment continues in Tennessee.
The failed execution has raised complex constitutional questions regarding whether Tennessee can lawfully attempt a second execution.
Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law professor who has studied execution methods for 36 years, told the Associated Press that Pike faces unresolved issues regarding her competency, double jeopardy, and cruel and unusual punishment.
“She has satisfied this very, very high standard for cruel and unusual punishment,” Denno said. “She also has a very good double-jeopardy argument. They carried out every aspect of the execution. She didn’t die, but every process they intended, they did it.”
Other legal experts expressed skepticism that higher courts would bar a second attempt. Seattle University Law Professor Michael Russo, a former Los Angeles public defender in capital cases, acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the case.
“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. But he added, “I think what this Supreme Court would say is, her sentence was to die — to be executed — not to suffer an attempt at execution.”
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