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Christa Pike is suffering “cognitive challenges” and “profound psychological trauma” after her bungled execution, her lawyers revealed.
The 50-year-old death row inmate regained consciousness on Tuesday after surviving two botched attempts to put her to death using lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Sept. 30.
“While her physical recovery has been remarkable, significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured,” her lawyers said in a statement.
“Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die.”
“Christa also continues to experience cognitive challenges with concentration and memory,” the attorneys added.
Pike was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in Jan. 1995, when she was 18.
Her legal team believed she was brain dead on Monday night and would be taken off life support the following day — hours before she woke up Tuesday morning and began walking with help on Wednesday afternoon.
In their statement, the attorneys said that her arms –– which were significantly injured during the attempted execution –– had begun to heal and regain movement.
“Her lungs are clear, and she has started to eat a regular diet,” they said. “Physicians are encouraged by her physical recovery.”
Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years,
but instead became the first person believed to have survived lethal injection doses in the US.
Outgoing Tennessee Governor Bill Lee paused all remaining executions this year and ordered an independent review into what went wrong.
In their statement, Pike’s lawyers renewed their call for Gov. Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“She should never be subjected to another execution attempt,” they argued.
