Lawyers believed Christa Pike was 'brain dead' before she ‘shocked’ them by waking up
Lawyers for death row inmate Christa Pike say they believed she was brain dead on Monday and she was expected to be taken off life support within 24 hours following her failed execution by lethal injection.
So, it was ‘to the shock of everyone’ that she woke up on Tuesday and began to talk to those around her, attorney Randy Spivey said.
He added, “I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is that Christa has a long road to recovery.”
According to a CNN report, he explained how Pike is suffering from pneumonia with a blood clot in her arm – currently she is also unable to swallow and cannot eat.
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“She cannot move either of her arms. Both of her arms and hands are tremendously swollen, and we do not know what, if any, function she will regain in her arms. But we do know that there’s a long road ahead,” he said.
Spivey reported Pike’s first words upon regaining consciousness after being in critical condition since receiving two doses of the deadly poison pentobarbital were “Where am I and who are you?”
However, he explained in a press conference on Wednesday that he was not in the room himself when she was said to have uttered those words and he declined to speculate on what they might mean for Pike’s recovery.
He noted there was “still a lot of cognitive confusion” for Pike but she is “very aware that the state tried to execute her.”
“She has wanted to know what’s happened, and she’s asked about several people,” Spivey said. “I think she is angry and confused about everything right now.”
In the meantime, a judge has granted Pike’s lawyers’ motion for state evidence to be preserved in relation to the execution attempt by Tennessee Department of Correction.
Judge I’Ashea Myles said Pike’s case could not have been anticipated and ordered that 911 calls and communications between state officials would be preserved.
“I want you all to preserve all of that information,” she ruled.
She warned the state administration should “take special care not to lose, misplace or accidentally delete” any information related to the case.
CNN also reported that Tennessee’s Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers told the court there was currently no further execution order for Pike, however he was not able to confirm whether one would be applied for in future.
“So is the state’s position that the state is not going to revive an order,” Judge I’Ashea Myles asked. “I understand that all executions have been suspended for now. Is that going to be permanent or is the state prepared to take the position that Miss Pike will not be rescheduled?”
Ayers said he’s not in a position to answer that question.
“But you’re also not in a position to say that tomorrow a new execution order will not be presented. Is that correct?” the judge pushed.
“Your honor, that is within the purview of the Tennessee Supreme Court,” Ayers said.
Pike waited over 30 years on death row for the 1995 killing of her classmate Colleen Slemmers in Knoxville.
Michael D. Carroll