Christa Pike: Death Row killer utters first words after waking up from botched execution

Death row killer Christa Pike has revealed that she has “no memory” of the botched attempt to execute her in her first words since regaining consciousness a week after the state of Tennessee failed to carry out her death sentence.

It was reported earlier on Wednesday that Pike had regained consciousness and was speaking from the hospital bed where she continued to receive critical care after receiving two lethal injections of pentobarbital.

However, the BBC reported after an interview with an anaesthesiologist advising her legal team that 50-year-old Pike has no recollection of the actual attempt to execute her.

Sentenced to death as an 18-year-old for the murder of fellow teenager Colleen Slemmer in 1995, Pike survived the two lethal injections on 30 September in Tennessee. She is believed to be the only death row inmate to do so.

Witnesses to the execution said about five minutes after receiving the lethal injections at 7.30pm, local time, Pike asked if her arm was supposed to feel that way before complaining that it felt as if it was about to burst. Pike subsequently lost consciousness but could be heard audibly breathing from behind a curtain.

When it became clear she would survive the execution attempt, an ambulance arrived at the prison at 9.14pm to rush her to hospital where the chemical was purged from her body.

Anaesthesiologist Joel Zivot told the BBC that Pike, who was taken off a ventilator on Wednesday, was able to recall her name and tried to guess the date, erroneously stating that it was still September.

“She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt,” Dr Zivot said.

However, Dr Zivot said in an earlier interview that the likelihood of recovering from such lethal injections was low. “Most people who get lethal injection die from it,” he said, adding that it was still unknown how much pentobarbital actually made it into her system.

“I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her,” he said.

Pike’s attorneys are set to appear in court Wednesday as they are seeking more information from the Tennessee Department of Correction. Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has scheduled a Wednesday morning status conference in Nashville in the case.

“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement.

Pike’s prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery, the attorneys said. They said Pike’s arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and that she is handcuffed to the hospital bed.

Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.

Attorneys with the Tennessee attorney general’s office wrote in a Tuesday court filing that the court order is unnecessary because the prison system is “obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved.” They said state officials have taken “the necessary steps to obtain medical care for Pike and ascertain what occurred.”

Republican Governor Bill Lee called what happened “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”