A lawyer for convicted murderer Christa Pike has revealed that she woke up in a hospital bed feeling "angry and confused" after surviving an unprecedented failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week. Experts and her legal team say her apparent recovery is unprecedented, and that no other US inmate has survived a lethal injection from executioners.
During a news conference following a court hearing on Wednesday, attorney Randy Spivey recalled Pike’s first words upon regaining consciousness: "Where am I?" and "Who are you?" The 50-year-old inmate, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital on September 30. For days, her lawyers believed she was brain dead and prepared for her to be taken off life support. However, she unexpectedly began speaking on Tuesday, though she remembers only limited details of the execution attempt.
According to Spivey, Pike had actually assisted the execution team in locating a vein in her arm, remaining kind and polite throughout the process. She later woke up in a hospital room with a breathing tube down her throat, surrounded by unfamiliar people. Her physical condition remains critical; both of her arms are severely swollen, she has developed pneumonia, has a blood clot in one arm, and is currently unable to swallow. Her hands and feet remain restrained to her hospital bed.
"We don't know the toll all of this will take" on her mental health, Spivey said, highlighting her state of confusion and anger. Her legal team has also expressed frustration over communication barriers. Defense attorney Luke Ihnen told Judge Chancellor I'Ashea Myles that prison officials have kept Pike shackled to her bed, ignoring requests from hospital medical staff to remove the handcuffs. Ihnen also noted that attorneys were kept waiting for more than two hours during a recent attempt to visit her in the hospital.
Earlier on Wednesday, lawyers appeared before a judge for an emergency hearing, where her team requested that all evidence from the botched execution be preserved. This evidence could serve as the foundation for a future lawsuit against the state of Tennessee. Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers argued that an emergency motion was unnecessary because the state is already legally obligated to preserve such evidence, pointing out the highly "unusual procedural position" of the case.
Still, Judge Myles ordered that "anything that was in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained," including IV lines and syringes, as well as waste, like packaging, inserts, and labels. Additionally, the judge demanded the state provide documentation regarding Pike's psychological condition before, during, and after the September 30 execution attempt. Judge Myles advised the state to exercise "special care" to ensure no relevant information is misplaced or accidentally deleted.
When asked by the judge if the state intended to reschedule Pike's execution, Ayers stated that he did not know. In the wake of the failed procedure, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered a temporary pause on all executions in the state for the remainder of the year to investigate the incident. The state's prisons chief has also announced his resignation following the botched execution.
Pike's lawyers have requested that she be granted phone access to communicate with her legal team and that they receive "continuous liberal access" to her. They also asked that the Tennessee Department of Correction be required to notify them at least 48 hours before transferring Pike from the hospital to any state hospital or government-run facility.
Pike was 18 years old when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom they met at a job training camp for troubled teenagers. Because Shipp was 17 at the time of the 1995 murder, he was legally spared the death penalty and remains in prison serving his sentence.
