Christa Pike asked "Where am I and who are you?" upon awakening in hospital following a failed execution attempt, according to her legal team. The convicted murderer remains hospitalised in Nashville after surviving two lethal injections and receiving urgent medical care last week.
Lawyer describes anger and confusion
Outside a Tennessee courthouse on Tuesday, her solicitor revealed Pike was "angry and confused" when she came round and was "very aware that the state tried to execute her". He also detailed "extraordinary" swelling to her hands following the botched execution, describing them as appearing "if you tried to blow up a surgical glove", The Mirror reports.
Pike, 50, who received a death sentence for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, was set to become the first woman put to death in Tennessee for over 200 years. However, the execution was stopped after she allegedly survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital and subsequently regained consciousness, her lawyers claim.
Victim's mother loses hope
The mum of murdered teenager Colleen Slemmer has revealed she is losing hope that her daughter's killer will ever be subjected to capital punishment following the bungled execution. May Martinez, Slemmer's mother, admitted she had never thought Pike would perish during the procedure and now questions whether the state will make a further attempt to fulfil the sentence.
Pike's solicitor also detailed how she had regained consciousness with a blood clot and pneumonia, unable to swallow or move her severely swollen arms. "I don't know what function she will regain," he said. The death row prisoner's legal representatives informed the court that the botched execution was "foreseeable and foreseen" owing to her medical condition.
Legal team speaks out
"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."
Mr Spivey further stated that Pike had been unable to swallow or eat since regaining consciousness, acknowledging that "we do know that there is a long road ahead." A second member of Pike's legal team, speaking outside the courthouse, revealed their understanding that she was "brain dead" and that "life support would be removed the next day."
He described Pike as a "survivor", noting she had endured "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."
