Christa Pike awake and speaking one week after failed Tennessee execution

Lawyers for Christa Pike said in a statement on Tuesday, 6 October, that she is conscious, speaking and continuing to receive critical medical care, according to DW, France 24 and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera reported the statement was the first public indication that her condition had improved since the failed execution attempt on 30 September. Her lawyers said her prognosis remains unclear but that, at a minimum, they expect "a long recovery."

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike's legal team, said she is still in an intensive care unit, DW reported. He said she has recovered enough to be off a ventilator and able to speak, but added, "in no way would I announce her free of further serious risk." Her lawyers said that despite severe damage to her arms, she is "still handcuffed and shackled" to her hospital bed. Her lawyers had previously said she was unconscious and on a ventilator, Al Jazeera reported.

The execution attempt took place on the night of 30 September at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to France 24. Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, and her lawyers said in court filings that both arms were left "swollen, burned and blistered," France 24 reported. Pike's attorneys and journalists who witnessed the attempt described it as roughly two and a half hours of disarray, and Pike was heard saying at one point, "my arm feels like it's about to burst open," France 24 reported.

Pike's lawyers are due in Davidson County Chancery Court on Wednesday, France 24 reported. DW reported they are seeking a court order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence, including drug lot numbers and records from the attempted execution. DW reported they ultimately want her sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. France 24 reported that Governor Bill Lee denied Pike's clemency petition last week.

DW reported Pike was sentenced to death for the beating, stabbing and murder of a classmate in 1995. Al Jazeera reported she was convicted and sentenced to die in 1996 for her participation in the murder of Colleen Slemmer, when Pike was 18 years old, and that two co-defendants received lesser sentences. Al Jazeera reported Pike's defence lawyers had pointed to her mental health struggles in attempts to commute her sentence. Al Jazeera also reported the Slemmer family had advocated for the death penalty, pointing to the violent nature of the murder of the 19-year-old.

France 24 reported Pike was the first woman Tennessee had attempted to put to death in 200 years. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, which publishes data and analysis on capital punishment in the United States, Pike is the first prisoner ever to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, DW reported. France 24 reported that death penalty opponents said the incident exposed the inherent barbarity of executions. Al Jazeera reported the incident has brought attention to the prevalence of botched executions in the US criminal justice system.