{"id":622955,"date":"2026-10-07T05:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622955\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T05:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T05:00:19","slug":"christa-pike-conscious-speaking-after-failed-us-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622955\/","title":{"rendered":"Christa Pike ‘conscious, speaking’ after failed US execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christa Pike, an inmate who survived Tennessee\u2019s attempt to execute her<\/a>, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,\u201d attorneys for Pike said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Her attorneys said they are grateful for the first responders and the medical team at the hospital \u201cwho treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her”.<\/p>\n

The statement was the first indication that Pike has improved since an ambulance carried her away from a Nashville prison last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital<\/a> as they attempted to put her to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. The lethal injection drug didn\u2019t kill her, but her lawyers said her arms were left burned and blistered.<\/p>\n

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike\u2019s legal team, said the development \u201cbodes well for a good recovery.\u201d But, he added, it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored to a level that might enable the state to try again to execute her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s still in the ICU,\u201d he said. \u201cShe has recovered to a certain degree that she\u2019s able to be off a ventilator and able to speak, but in no way would I announce her free of further serious risk. There\u2019s still a lot of bad things that can happen here, even when everyone is doing their job well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s attorneys are set to go to court as they seek to learn more about what happened in the failed lethal injection.<\/p>\n

The attorneys are seeking a court order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence, including drug lot numbers, records and other information from the Sept. 30 attempted execution. <\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the washup from the last night\u2019s election debate, and an NBA star shows up at a French rugby training. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christa Pike, an inmate who survived Tennessee\u2019s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-622955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}