Christa Pike 'angry' and 'confused' after failed execution; judge orders to preserve evidence

US death row inmate Christa Pike is ‘angry and confused’ after surviving a botched execution in Tennessee, her lawyers said, as a judge sided with her attorneys and ordered state authorities to preserve evidence from the failed execution. Pike, 50, who was sentenced to death for a murder she committed as a teenager, was administered two supposedly lethal doses of pentobarbital at a Tennessee prison last Wednesday. She survived the injections and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, initially unconscious and dependent on a ventilator.

"Pike regained consciousness yesterday and is speaking limitedly," her lawyer Luke Ihnen said at a court hearing on Wednesday. He added that she remains shackled to her hospital bed. "Medical staff have asked that the shackles be removed and have been denied that request," Ihnen said. An anesthesiologist retained by Pike's lawyers as an expert ahead of her execution told the BBC that she was no longer on the ventilator. "Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery," her lawyers said on Tuesday as they called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison.

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Judge orders evidence from failed execution to be preserved

Judge I’Ashea Myles granted Christa Pike’s motion to preserve state materials connected to her failed execution, siding with her attorneys in their effort to secure evidence from the incident. Myles said the case was unique and that the circumstances surrounding the failed execution could not have been anticipated.

The judge directed state correctional authorities to preserve an exhaustive range of potentially relevant materials, including medical supplies and waste used during the execution, as well as audio and video recordings. The order also covers any 911 calls connected to the botched execution and communications between state officials. The court order comes as questions grow over what happened during the attempted execution and whether established procedures were properly followed.

Pike's lawyers have called for Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence, while Lee has suspended executions in the state pending an independent investigation. Tennessee's prison chief has also resigned. The state's correction department has maintained that it followed established protocol.

Pike's condition remains uncertain

Randy Spivey, another attorney representing Pike, said his team had understood that she was brain dead on Monday night and that life support would be withdrawn the following day. However, he said that, in a ‘shock to everyone’, Pike woke up and began talking on Tuesday. Spivey said Pike has a blood clot in one arm, pneumonia and is currently unable to swallow. He also said both of her arms and hands are ‘tremendously swollen’.

"Christa has a long road to recovery," Spivey said. He described Pike as a ‘survivor’, saying she had survived a suicide attempt, child sexual abuse, the rapes of multiple men and now lethal injections. Pike's case has renewed debate over capital punishment and the use of lethal injection in the United States.

Another US execution scheduled

The state of Texas was scheduled to carry out an execution later on Wednesday, making it the first such execution in the United States since the attempt to execute Pike. Jamaal Howard was scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing a store clerk during a 2000 robbery. His lawyers have asked for the execution to be postponed, citing the events surrounding Pike's failed execution. The case has placed renewed scrutiny on execution procedures as authorities investigate how Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and what medical complications followed.