Death-row prisoner Christa Pike has regained consciousness and is able to speak after two attempts to carry out her execution by lethal injection failed last week in Tennessee, according to her lawyers.
The 50-year-old Pike remains in hospital under treatment and is still being kept in handcuffs, her legal team said in a statement on Tuesday. She had been unconscious for several days after the failed execution attempt, while medical staff worked to treat the effects of chemicals administered during the procedure.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. At the time of the killing, Pike was 18 and was involved in the crime with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Ship. The two had met Slemmer at a vocational training camp for troubled teenagers. Pike and Ship were convicted of beating, torturing and killing Slemmer.
Pike’s execution was scheduled to take place in Tennessee last Wednesday using a lethal injection containing pentobarbital. However, officials made two attempts to carry out the procedure, and neither was successful. Pike was subsequently taken to hospital, where she remained unconscious for several days.
Her lawyers have described her recovery as unprecedented from a medical perspective. They have cautioned, however, that it is still too early to determine whether she will suffer any lasting physical consequences from the failed execution attempt.
The legal team said it hoped Pike would continue to recover over a prolonged period. Her current condition has attracted particular attention because, according to experts cited in the report, there are no known previous cases in which a prisoner survived after a lethal substance had actually been administered during an attempted execution.
Deborah Denno, a criminologist and professor at Fordham Law School who has studied capital punishment, said she was surprised to learn that Pike had regained consciousness and was speaking. She said there had been seven other cases in which prisoners survived beyond the scheduled time of execution, but those cases differed significantly from Pike’s.
In those incidents, execution personnel were unable to administer the drugs into the prisoners’ veins. In Pike’s case, however, a lethal chemical was introduced into her body as part of the execution process. According to Denno, the officials involved had carried out the steps they were expected to take, yet the procedure failed to produce the intended result.
Authorities have not explained why the pentobarbital failed to cause Pike’s death. They have also not said whether they intend to make another attempt to execute her.
The uncertainty comes as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions in the state for the remainder of the year. The decision means any potential future action in Pike’s case will face an additional delay, although the authorities have yet to outline what will happen next.
Pike’s lawyers are due to appear in court in Nashville on Wednesday and are also expected to hold a news conference outside the courthouse. Her legal team is likely to provide further information about her condition and the consequences of the failed execution attempt.
Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist who serves as a consultant to Pike’s defence team, said on Tuesday that surviving a lethal injection is extremely unlikely. Pike’s recovery therefore represents an exceptionally rare development in a case that has already raised questions about the reliability and consequences of lethal-injection procedures.
