Christa Pike remains hospitalized and critically ill days after Tennessee’s attempt to execute her failed, and her attorney says she may never fully recover. Stephen Ferrell told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that Pike is still on a ventilator and that her hospital room is under guard. “She is guarded. I’m not sure who may have seen her. I know I have not seen her,” Ferrell said.
The Christa Pike execution attempt has left the state’s plans in limbo. “The state of Tennessee has not yet said whether it will ultimately try to execute her again,” Ferrell said. If they don’t, he believes Pike “may not fully recover.” He added that a major factor keeping the situation unresolved is that “we don’t know what the prognosis is, as in the long-term prognosis.” Doctors, who Ferrell said are baffled as to how Pike survived, were still trying to clear the lethal pentobarbital from her body.
Despite two lethal injections, Pike survived the attempt to put her to death. Witnesses described that she indicated she was experiencing severe pain in her arm before she fell unconscious and started snoring. Her attorneys have said she “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” in court filings. Governor Bill Lee has halted the state’s remaining executions this year and ordered a comprehensive third-party review. Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer when she was 18.
