Christa Pike’s first words after waking from botched execution revealed as lawyer lists her health issues

NASHVILLE — Christa Pike asked “where am I?” when she woke up from a botched execution attempt, which left her suffering from a blood clot in her arm, pneumonia and not being able to eat, her lawyer said.

Pike, 50, was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years on September 30 — but instead became the first prisoner ever to survive a lethal injection in the US.

Her first words when she woke up on Tuesday were “Where am I and who are you?” before asking about her victim Colleen Slemmer’s family, her attorney, Randy Spivey, told a press conference Wednesday.

Pike was sentenced to death for brutally torturing and killing her 19-year-old classmate Slemmer in a jealous rage in Jan. 1995, when she was 18.

She was rushed to hospital after receiving two doses of lethal injection drug pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville last week and was initially said to be unconscious and in a critical condition.

“Christa has a long road to recovery,” Spivey said. “She has a blood clot in one of her arms, she has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten.”  

Spivey said that Pike also suffered “extraordinary” swelling to her hands, adding that they “looked like if you were to blow up a surgical glove.”

The lawyer revealed that on Monday night her legal team had been told Pike was brain dead and life support would be removed the following day.

“But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,” he said.

“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning.”

Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist who has advised Pike’s lawyers, earlier told the BBC that Pike “has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt.”

Zivot added that Pike could recall her name, is able to communicate in a “basic way” and made an incorrect guess at the date, believing that it was still September.

Spivey spoke outside Davidson County Chancery Court after Pike’s legal team appeared to argue for an emergency motion requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence related to the bungled execution.

Judge I’Ashea Myles granted the motion, adding, “This case is unique to say the least.”

The judge said that anything that was in the death chamber “needs to be preserved and maintained,” in addition to surveillance footage or any videos, handwritten notes, witness accounts and encrypted communications.  

Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers told the court that there is currently no pending execution order for Pike and said “I can’t answer that question” when asked by the judge if capital punishment would be rescheduled.

Another one of Pike’s lawyers, Luke Ihnen, told the hearing “the state has made no promises that Ms. Pike will not be subject to future execution” and added that they were seeking that evidence be preserved because it would be “relevant for any future challenge she makes.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted all remaining executions this year and ordered an independent review in the wake of the fiasco. 

Pike’s legal team has pleaded that the governor commute her sentence, saying she has “endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”