Christa Pike awake and speaking after survived execution attempt in Tennessee

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and speaking at a hospital after surviving a failed execution attempt, her lawyers said. The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and BBC News all reported that the 50 year old survived after receiving two doses of pentobarbital on September 30. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Pike survived the lethal injection attempt in Tennessee and was placed in critical care. [1][2][3][7][14]

Attorneys for Pike are heading to court to seek a court order requiring the preservation of all evidence relating to the botched execution exercise by the state, according to the Guardian. BBC News reported that Pike continues to receive critical medical care while handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed, citing a statement from her lawyers on Tuesday. The Daily Mail also reported that Pike had previously been hooked up to a ventilator. [1][3][7]

An anaesthesiologist advising her legal team told BBC News that Pike can communicate in a basic way, though she does not seem to recall the execution attempt. Al Jazeera reported that the Death Penalty Information Center stated Pike is the first inmate ever to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs. [2][3]

Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19 year old classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was sentenced to death in 1996. Over roughly thirty minutes, Slemmer was beaten, slashed, and had a pentagram carved into her chest before Pike killed her by crushing her skull with a chunk of asphalt. [2][3][5][12]