Christa Pike asked "Where am I and who are you?" after waking in hospital following a botched execution attempt, her lawyers have said. The convicted killer remains in a Nashville hospital after surviving two lethal injections and being rushed for emergency treatment last week.
Lawyer describes Pike's condition
Speaking outside a Tennessee courthouse on Tuesday, her lawyer said Pike was "angry and confused" when she regained consciousness and was "very aware that the state tried to execute her". He also described "extraordinary" swelling to her hands in the aftermath of the failed execution, saying they looked as though "if you tried to blow up a surgical glove", The Mirror reports.
Pike, 50, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, had been set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. However, the execution was halted after she reportedly survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital and subsequently regained consciousness, according to her legal team.
Victim's mother reacts
The mother of murdered teenager Colleen Slemmer has said she is losing faith that her daughter's killer, Christa Pike, will ever face the death penalty following the failed execution attempt. May Martinez, Slemmer's mother, said she had never believed Pike would die during the procedure and now questions whether the state will make any further attempt to carry out the sentence.
Pike's solicitor also outlined how she had regained consciousness with a blood clot and pneumonia, revealing that she was unable to swallow or move her arms, both of which had become severely swollen. "I don't know what function she will regain," he said.
Legal team's warning
The death row prisoner's legal team informed the court that the botched execution was "foreseeable and foreseen" owing to her medical condition. "What happened to Christa is exactly what the state was warned would happen, and there are so many questions that need to be answered, not by Christa - but by the state of Tennessee", Randy Spivey said.
"Christa was at peace, she helped the execution team find what that they thought was venous access." Pike has been unable to swallow or eat since regaining consciousness, Mr Spivey confirmed, noting that "we do know that there is a long road ahead."
A second member of Pike's legal team, speaking outside the courthouse, stated that it was their understanding she was "brain dead" and that "life support would be removed the next day." He described Pike as a "survivor", adding that she had survived "child sexual abuse, rapes of multiple men, she survived a suicide attempt when she was 12 and she survived a state's attempt to execute her."
