Christa Pike lawyers say she is speaking one week after failed execution

Lawyers for Christa Pike say she is awake and able to speak after her botched execution attempt by the state of Tennessee on September 30.

Tuesday’s statement marks the first public indication that Pike’s condition has improved after she was transported to a Nashville hospital after receiving two doses of pentobarbitol, lethal injections intended to end her life.

Her failed execution has sparked debate about the use of the death penalty in the United States. Pike is thought to be the first person to have survived such an injection in the country.

“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” Pike’s lawyers said in a statement.

“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.”

The statement also expresses gratitude to medical workers who the lawyers say have “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her”.

Pike’s lawyers had previously stated that she was unconscious and on a ventilator. They described her arms as “swollen, burned and blistered” by the failed execution.

Pike was convicted and sentenced to die in 1996 for her participation in the murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was 18 years old. Two co-defendants received lesser sentences.

Pike’s defence lawyers had pointed to her mental health struggles in their attempts to commute her sentence. But the Slemmer family had advocated for the death penalty, pointing to the violent nature of the 19-year-old’s murder.

Accounts of Pike’s failed execution describe her kicking off the sheet covering her body and, at one point, appearing to snore. She reportedly expressed feeling pain as the lethal injections were administered.

The incident has brought attention to the prevalence of botched executions in the US criminal justice system.

Critics have argued that botched executions — defined as those that deviate from established procedures through unforeseen issues, delays or administrative incompetence — can cause unnecessary pain and suffering for those being put to death.

Citing the researcher Austin Sarat, the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit, estimates that 3 percent of executions in the US from 1890 to 2010 were botched.