Christa Pike has woken up and begun speaking from her hospital bed almost a week after her failed execution in Tennessee, her lawyers said, per the BBC. Experts and her lawyers have said that the new development is "medically unprecedented."
Pike was put on a ventilator after the failed execution attempt, with hospital staff working to save her life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system. She received two doses of the drug in a failed attempt by the state of Tennessee to execute her on Wednesday, September 30.
Pike’s attorneys said in a statement on Tuesday, October 6, that she remains handcuffed and shackled despite having sustained significant injuries to her arms after two injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her, NBC News reported. They previously stated in a court filing that they believed problems with intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
Who is paying for Christa Pike’s medical care?
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Who is paying for Christa Pike’s hospital treatment after the failed execution?
What medical problems is Christa Pike experiencing after the botched execution?
Why was Christa Pike placed on a ventilator after the execution attempt?
Pike’s attorney, Stephen Ferrell, had said before Pike regained consciousness that she “may not fully recover” from her botched execution.
{{/usCountry}}Pike’s attorney, Stephen Ferrell, had said before Pike regained consciousness that she “may not fully recover” from her botched execution.
{{/usCountry}}“She has been put through some really, really bad mental torture and physical torture,” he said at the time, per WSMV. “…That deserves a commutation of her death sentence.”
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However, Pike is now awake, but “angry and confused” after surviving two lethal injections, her attorneys said on Wednesday, October 7, per The Guardian. A judge has ordered Tennessee state officials to preserve all evidence related to the failed execution.
For expenses like emergency medical care following Pike’s failed execution, Tennessee is responsible as she remains in custody. The state is responsible for her medical care, including the hospitalization and treatment she now requires, per WBIR.
Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey said that she is hospitalized with pneumonia and has significant swelling in both her hands and arms and a blood clot in one arm. Spivey added that Pike is unable to swallow and has not eaten. According to Pike attorneys, she is unable to move her arms, and it is unclear how much function she will regain.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 in connection with the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 20 at the time.
Pike and her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, murdered Slemmer at a job training camp in Knoxville, Tennessee. Shocking details about the case shocked the United States, including the fact that a pentagram had been carved into Slemmer’s chest.