Christa Pike regains consciousness after failed execution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Christa Pike, who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug last week during a botched execution in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said in a statement Tuesday. Pike continues to receive critical medical care at a Nashville hospital, the lawyers said. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but they expected a long recovery. "Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time," the lawyers said. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug. She has been hospitalized since late Wednesday evening, after it became clear to witnesses that she was still breathing after two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injection. She had been unconscious and on a ventilator in recent days as medical staff worked to rid her body of the drug. The lawyers pointedly noted that Pike, who they said had sustained burns and other injuries to her arm, remained handcuffed and shackled to her bed. Pike had been on death row for three decades after a conviction for her role in the 1995 torture and murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer. The lawyers have renewed their plea for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, to reconsider allowing her to serve the rest of her life in prison. Pike's medical condition will likely determine whether or not Tennessee officials try to execute her again. The U.S. Supreme Court has forbidden the execution of someone who does not have a "rational understanding" of why they're being put to death. Lee, in the final months of his term as governor, put a moratorium on executions, given that it is the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to carry out a capital punishment. A spokesperson for Lee did not immediately respond to a question about whether he would grant Pike clemency. But state Republicans, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the front-runner to be elected governor next month, have signaled a desire to press forward with executions using a different method. Blackburn has suggested the electric chair. The failed attempt to execute Pike left potent questions about the secretive process of lethal injection in Tennessee and how public the state will be about what went wrong during her execution. The state's Department of Correction has not answered questions about Pike's condition beyond acknowledging her hospitalization last week. "The whole judicial system is called into question, the way this happened and the way it's being handled," said David Raybin, a Nashville lawyer who helped write Tennessee's death penalty law. The failure in Pike's case, paired with the government's secrecy, is "eroding public confidence." Lee on Saturday said he had tapped Ed Stanton, a former U.S. attorney, for an independent investigation. Pike's lawyers are set to appear in court in Nashville on Wednesday to argue that a judge should order the state to preserve records related to the failed execution and that an expert should examine any residual amounts of chemicals, as well as syringes and intravenous lines, used in the execution. The Tennessee attorney general has not yet responded in court to the filings from Pike's lawyers. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.