Christa Pike awoke almost six days after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her, leaving the death-row prisoner “angry and confused,” one of her attorneys said.
Randy Spivey made the comments after a judge ordered the state to preserve evidence connected to the botched execution.
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Pike, 50, survived after executioners attempted to administer two lethal doses of pentobarbital on 30 September.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning but I do know she has a long road to recovery,” he added.
“On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day. But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, Christa woke up and began talking.”
Mr Spivey was not beside Pike when she regained consciousness, but said he was told that her first questions were, “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
The Death Penalty Information Centre says Pike is the only known person to survive after receiving lethal-injection drugs as part of an execution.
During a hearing in Nashville, Pike’s lawyers asked the court to direct the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence from the execution attempt and disclose more information about how it failed.
A judge ordered the state to retain “anything that was in the actual room”.
“Part of the issue that we are facing is up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel, unable to communicate with medical providers, and without her consent” a new lawsuit cannot be filed, Luke Ihnen, a federal public defender, told the court.
Pike’s legal team said yesterday that doctors still could not determine her prognosis and that, at the very least, she faced a prolonged recovery. Her arms were burned and blistered during the attempted injection, and she remained handcuffed to her hospital bed, they said.
The failed execution has intensified questions about the way states administer the death penalty, particularly their reliance on lethal injection.
Pike’s lawyers sought an order requiring the prison system to retain records and materials from the attempt, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other documentation.
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles suggested that her preservation order would be broad, directing the state to keep recordings, witness statements and emails, as well as drugs, syringes, IV lines and other medical equipment.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office argued that a court order was not needed. John W Ayers, an assistant attorney general, said officials had already collected and logged evidence from the death chamber.
Republican governor Bill Lee described the incident as “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive third-party review to determine exactly what occurred”. He also postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.
The head of Tennessee’s prison system resigned after the failed execution.
Medical specialists and lethal-injection experts have examined whether a problem with the IV line allowed the drugs to collect in Pike’s tissue instead of reaching her bloodstream.
In a court filing, her lawyers wrote that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown”.
The execution attempt began at about 7.30pm on 30 September, when Pike was given the opportunity to make a final statement. Roughly five minutes later, she lifted her head and said that her arm was hurting.
She appeared to lose consciousness at some point, but could still be heard breathing until the media were led out of the witness room at 8.53pm. An ambulance reached the prison at 9.14pm and took her to hospital.
Dr Joel Zivot, an Atlanta professor of anaesthesiology and surgery who advised Pike’s legal team, said it could take weeks or months to understand the extent of her recovery — and to determine whether she might regain the competency required for the state to attempt another execution.
