Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and speaking six days after surviving a failed lethal injection, her lawyers have said.
Pike remains hospitalised and is receiving critical medical care following the botched execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on September 30.
Her attorneys said Tuesday that Pike suffered severe injuries to her arms during the execution attempt and remains handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. They said her prognosis remains unclear and that she is expected to face a long recovery.
Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital, but the execution was halted after she remained alive. Her lawyers said execution staff struggled for about an hour to establish intravenous access and used at least seven needles.
They had previously warned Tennessee authorities about Pike’s history of difficulties with vein access. Her attorneys believe problems with the IV lines caused the drug to enter surrounding tissue rather than her bloodstream.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her execution would have made her the first woman put to death in Tennessee in about 200 years.
Following the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted the state’s remaining scheduled executions for 2026 and ordered an independent review of the incident.
Former US Attorney Ed Stanton is leading the review, which will examine whether Tennessee’s execution protocol was properly followed and whether changes are needed. Stanton previously reviewed the state’s lethal injection procedures in 2022.
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has also resigned following the incident.
Pike’s lawyers are seeking a court order to preserve evidence from the execution attempt and have called on Governor Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without parole.
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