Christa Pike's lawyer says she 'may not fully recover' after failed execution

Christa Pike’s lawyers have announced that ‘she may never recover’ after her failed execution by the state of Tennessee.

A member of Pike’s legal team, Stephen Ferrell said she was still ‘critically ill’ during his interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.

He said Pike was still hospitalised on a ventilator and surrounded by guards: “We don’t really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several days.”

“It remains to be seen what the future is,” Ferrell continued. “I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is — as in, the long-term prognosis. If she recovers — she may not fully recover.”

Christa Pike's execution was halted just one hour before it was due to take place (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

“And there may be issues about her competence. We just don’t know any of this,” he said.

He also said the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office – usually responsible for issuing requests for any further execution – has “not given us any indication as to what their intentions will be.”

According to PEOPLE, Ferrell informed Tapper that the governor should commute Pike’s death sentence ‘at the very least’ because she had already ‘endured a torturous attempt at executing her.’

All Tennessee executions have been paused for the rest of the year by Governor Bill Lee. A statement given to PEOPLE by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office said, “The governor has appropriately called for an investigation,” adding, “We need to know what happened.”

Death row killer Christa Pike’s was given two doses of supposedly lethal drug

Pike was administered two doses of the lethal poison pentobarbital, a drug which suppresses breathing and heart function. However, she survived after falling unconscious but breathing following the injections.

Lawyers claimed seven needles were used during the procedure, with her arm ‘swollen, burned and blistered’ by the time she arrived at the hospital.

She was described as ‘crying, whimpering and breathing loudly during the botched execution.’ Witnesses said she complained: “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open” and also asked, “Does this happen like that?”

Pike was convicted of the first-degree killing of her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 and she was sentenced to death the following year.