Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and talking in the hospital following her botched execution, her attorneys announced on Oct. 6.
"Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care," her attorneys said in a statement. "Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed."
While the attorneys said that Pike's recovery is "medically unprecedented," they said her prognosis remains unclear and that "at a minimum, we expect a long recovery."
The attorneys expressed gratitude to the first responders and medical team "who treated Christa like human and have provided exceptional care to her,"
They added: "We also want to thank thousands
from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa. "
'She survived two complete rounds of lethal injection per Tennessee’s protocol, despite her attorneys’ warning to the state of specific challenges with her veins," they continued. "She is the only person known to have survived a complete execution attempt in the U.S. Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time. We continue to ask the Governor of Tennessee to commute Christa Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."
The governor's office has not responded to USA TODAY's request for comment or questions about whether Gov. Bill Lee will grant a commutation.
Tennessee was supposed to execute Pike, 50, by lethal injection on Sept. 30 for the brutal and prolonged 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The execution failed after Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital injections and was taken to a Nashville-area hospital.
A timeline of the chaos in the death chamber compiled by USA TODAY shows that the state tried to kill Pike for over an hour before rushing to try to save her.
"We will never know exactly what physical pain and what mental pain she was going through, but that was her biggest fear as the survivor of sexual abuse − that she would be pinned down, prodded, poked, cut for a prolonged period of time," one of Pike's attorneys, Stephen Ferrell, told reporters the day after the botched execution. "That was cruel and unusual punishment."
The botched execution was the second in the state in four months and drew immediate criticism. Lee has ordered an independent investigation into what happened and called off the one remaining execution in the state this year. He also announced the upcoming resignation of Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who oversaw the botched executions of Pike and Tony Carruthers in May.
What happened during Pike's botched execution?
At 7:30 p.m. CT on Sept. 30, Pike's would-be executioners administered the first dose of pentobarbital, according to members of the news media who witnessed part of what happened.
"My arm feels like it's about to burst open," Pike said at 7:34 p.m. CT, according to WKRN journalist and Tori Gessner.
Reporters said Pike took many deep breaths, was snoring and yawning at times, and was moving around for the next half hour. At some point, confusion set in: "We all looked at each other like, 'She’s still alive,'" Gessner said.
At 7:46 p.m., prison officials closed the curtains to the death chamber and the media witnesses were in the dark. They opened the curtains three minutes later, presumably after administering the second dose of pentobarbital. Reporters say she was variably snoring, grunting and making choking sounds.
At 8:05 p.m., the state again closed the curtains and left the journalists in the dark for about 50 more minutes before ordering them out. Soon after they took Pike to a Nashville-area hospital.
On Oct. 2, Pike's attorneys said that she was unconscious, on a ventilator, and that her arms were burned, blistered, and swollen. They said that they hadn't been allowed to visit her but that hospital staff were working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital from her system.
Her attorneys say they believe that Pike's IV lines were improperly placed or that Pike's veins had blown, causing some or all of the pentobarbital to enter her arm rather than her bloodstream. They said establishing intravenous access for Pike took about an hour and required multiple attempts.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike appeared to be the first person known to have survived after execution drugs entered her body.
Pike's botched execution began nearly 10 hours after it was originally scheduled because a federal appeals court granted her a last-minute stay of execution over arguments about Pike's traumatic childhood, which included years of sexual assaults. The execution was able to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the stay in a 6-3 decision.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime and courts reporter who covers the death penalty, cold cases and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Against all odds': Christa Pike conscious and talking after botched execution
