Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital on 30 September in Tennessee and regained consciousness five days later, fully aware of the attempt.
Her lawyers told TMZ she speaks in full sentences and walks more independently, while doctors assess cognitive and psychological effects that may take a month or more to clarify.
TMZ reports 31 minutes passed before prison staff called 911, and a court ordered preservation of all evidence while Governor Bill Lee paused executions.
A four-day Reuters/Ipsos poll found a third of Americans back a second execution attempt, 39% prefer life sentences and 26% are unsure.
Christa Pike, a 50-year-old convicted murderer on death row in Tennessee, survived an execution attempt on 30 September, when she was given two doses of pentobarbital. Her lawyers said doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center first treated her and warned it was probable she was brain-dead. Five days later she regained consciousness, fully aware of the attempt on her life. The failure was Tennessee's second botched lethal injection this year. After her hospital stay she was sent back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been held for 30 years.
Pike's lawyers told TMZ that she now speaks in full sentences, communicates more clearly and can walk more independently. They say she remains under close medical supervision in prison. Doctors are still trying to establish whether the injections caused lasting cognitive or psychological damage, and her lawyers have said that assessment could take another month or more. Her first questions after waking, as her lawyers recounted them, were about where she was and who the people around her were. Medics and her lawyer had earlier feared she might be brain-dead, and her recovery has surprised them, according to LBC.
According to TMZ, 31 minutes passed before prison staff called 911 after the failed attempt, because they were waiting for authorization and did not know how to proceed. TMZ describes confusion among prison staff and first responders. Recordings reported by LaSexta indicate that prison authorities took 31 minutes to confirm the emergency request was legitimate. A court ordered state authorities to preserve all evidence linked to the failed execution, including infusion lines, syringes, prison documents, medical supplies and audio and video recordings. Governor Bill Lee has paused further executions while the incident is examined, according to watson, and Telegraaf reports he suspended all executions in the state for the rest of the year.
A four-day Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found that only a third of Americans think the state should attempt a second execution after a failed first try. Another 39% say such prisoners should serve life sentences, and 26% are unsure. Support for the death penalty for severe crimes stands at 55%, down from 63% in a 2017 Reuters/Ipsos poll, while 31% oppose it and 13% have no opinion.
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Pike was found guilty at age 18 of killing a 19-year-old classmate in 1995. Her supporters and legal team argued that the state should have weighed her history of severe childhood sexual violence and her bipolar disorder and PTSD diagnoses, which came after the verdict. A reprieve granted before her scheduled execution was rejected by the US Supreme Court. According to LBC, Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years, and according to watson, the first woman executed there since 1819.
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Lawyers say Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived two pentobarbital doses on 30 September, now speaks in full sentences and walks more independently. Doctors are still assessing whether the drugs caused lasting damage.
AI text based on reports by The Independent, LBC, ABC TU DIARIO EN ESPAÑOL and other publishers. Published .