Christa Pike conscious and able to speak after failed execution

Christa Pike has regained consciousness and is able to speak, according to an update from her legal team on Tuesday afternoon.

The update is the first since last week, when the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to execute Pike, who is 50, and who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike was rushed to a hospital where she was unconscious and on a ventilator.

The legal team says the woman is receiving critical medical care, including to her arms, and that she remains handcuffed and shackled to a bed. They are praising the first responders and medical staff treating her.

“Her recovery is medically unprecedented,” they wrote. “Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”

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Late last week, the legal team announced Pike had burns and blisters on her arms. They said that was likely because her IVs were placed poorly, and that the sedative drug pentobarbital likely flowed into her flesh instead of her bloodstream.

Statement from Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender, and Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, attorneys for Christa Pike

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. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.

We are incredibly grateful to the first responders and the medical team at the hospital who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her. We also want to thank thousands from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa.

Christa’s life has been extraordinarily difficult. She survived multiple childhood rapes, which political leaders in this state acknowledge leave lifelong scars. She survived nearly 30 years of solitary confinement and, more recently, escalating restrictive confinement leading up to her execution date. 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. 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.

This is a developing story.