BREAKING: TENNESSEE INMATE CHRISTA PIKE SPEAKING AFTER SURVIVING EXECUTION ATTEMPT

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By: Fasasi Hammad

Christa Pike, a Tennessee death-row inmate who survived an attempt by the state to execute her, is conscious and able to speak as she continues to receive medical treatment in hospital, according to her attorneys.

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

They added that despite suffering severe injuries to her arms, Pike remains handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. Her recovery, they said, is medically unprecedented, while her long-term prognosis remains uncertain.

“At a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” the attorneys said.

Pike survived two apparently lethal doses of pentobarbital last week after prison officials made two attempts to carry out her execution for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

She was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.

According to her legal team, execution staff struggled to establish intravenous access to administer the drugs during the procedure. Pike had previously informed state officials that she had a history of difficult-to-access veins.

Following the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended the state’s next scheduled execution and ordered an independent review of the Department of Correction’s handling of Pike’s case.

Lee also announced that the state’s prison chief would resign.

Former US Attorney Ed Stanton has been appointed to conduct the review of the Department of Correction’s actions during the attempted execution.

Pike’s attorneys expressed gratitude to the first responders and medical personnel treating her, saying they “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”

According to her legal team, Pike is the only known person in the United States to have survived a complete execution attempt.

Her attorneys are now urging Governor Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.