As death row inmate Christa Pike remains in critical condition, her lawyers claim she may have suffered brain damage during her botched execution.
Pike, 50, received two lethal injections when she was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, September 30, after she was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer.
The attempted execution lasted more than an hour as those involved struggled to successfully give Pike the injections, her attorneys, Randy Spivey and Stephen Ferrell, said on Thursday, October 1, according to People. After about 30 minutes of struggle, witnesses’ access to the execution was cut off.
Pike was transported to a hospital, where she is currently in critical condition and receiving life-saving care. The attorneys added that they don’t know the extent of the damage she may have suffered due to the lethal substance being put in her body, as well as possible oxygen deprivation.
“It’s such an unknown: what was conscious, what will be remembered, what damage may have occurred to her brain from oxygen deprivation,” Ferrell said.
“We don’t know at this point, where we are, everything we say, I think, would be speculation,” he continued. “But we may never know what all she was suffering through, either because she can’t remember it, she can’t tell it, or it overwhelms her in such a way that sometimes pain and suffering affect people that way.”
Ferrell added that Pike had made “peace” with the possibility of her death, though said she was worried the experience would be painful because of her blood disorder.
“It was her biggest fear, not death, but a prolonged death and that’s what happened, minus the death,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell said that Pike even tried to guide the executioners on where to find a vein at the time of the injections. (Her blood disorder often makes it hard to locate veins.)
Witnesses detailed the execution, with WKRN reporter Tori Gessner claiming that expressed being in pain.
“At one point, she said, ‘My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’” Gessner recalled during a news conference. “The curtains close[d] at first, but she was clearly still alive. She was clearly still breathing and snoring.”
Gessner added that Pike became conscious again and was smiling “really big” before she started to discuss “the one spot” that hurt on her arm.
“Her [spiritual] advisor tells her to ‘relax,’ and she replies, ‘I’m trying,’” Gessner shared. “She continues talking throughout this, before her breathing shifts and she starts moaning and snoring.”
