Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after the state's failed lethal injection, lawyers say

What happened

Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate, is awake and talking in a hospital, her attorneys said Tuesday, according to PBS NewsHour and CBS News. The update came six days after the state tried and failed to execute her by lethal injection on Sept. 30. As recently as Sunday, her lawyers had said she was still unconscious and on a ventilator, PBS reported.

In a statement, the attorneys said Pike's prognosis remains unclear and that they expect a long recovery. They said her arms suffered severe damage and that she is still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. A Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson told PBS only that Pike remained hospitalized Tuesday.

How the execution attempt failed

Two doses of pentobarbital

Pike, 50, was given two lethal doses of pentobarbital at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, CBS News reported. According to media witnesses, the execution was called off once it was determined she had not lost consciousness and still had a heartbeat. One witness said she could be heard snoring loudly about an hour after the procedure began, and she was then taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Her lawyers have said her arms were left burned and blistered, PBS reported. In a court motion described by CBS News, they claimed the corrections team did not realize the IV lines had been placed incorrectly, or that her veins had blown and the drug was entering her body in whole or in part.

The underlying case

Pike was convicted in the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old former classmate, CBS reported. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime and 20 when she was sentenced in 1996. The execution went forward after the Supreme Court denied a last-minute effort to stop it, and she was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in about two centuries, according to CBS.

How Tennessee officials responded

Gov. Bill Lee halted further executions and ordered what he called a "comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred," PBS reported. CBS News reported that Lee said all remaining executions scheduled in the state this year have been canceled and that Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will resign.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate to replace Lee, called on the state to explore other execution methods so it can keep carrying out capital punishment, according to PBS. Pike's attorneys continue to ask the outgoing governor to commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Attorney Steve Ferrell told "CBS Mornings" the team hopes to "at least take death off the table."

Can the state try again?

Medical and competency questions

Dr. Joel Zivot, an Atlanta professor of anesthesiology and surgery who consulted for Pike's legal team, told PBS that her improvement "bodes well for a good recovery." He said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows what her recovery will look like and whether her competency could be restored enough for the state to attempt another execution. He noted she is still in intensive care and not free of serious risk.

Constitutional arguments

Fordham Law professor Deborah Denno, who has studied execution methods for 36 years, told PBS that Pike has strong arguments that a second attempt would be cruel and unusual and could violate the ban on double jeopardy. Denno said other states have been allowed to try again after failing to set up an IV line, but Pike is the first person to survive after the lethal drug was actually administered.

Seattle University law professor Michael Russo, who handled capital cases as a public defender in Los Angeles, called the failed execution horrible. But he told PBS he doubted the Supreme Court would block another attempt on double jeopardy grounds, saying the court would likely view her sentence as execution, "not to suffer an attempt at execution."

What to watch next

• A status conference before Chancery Court Judge I'Ashea Myles, scheduled for Wednesday morning, on the request to preserve evidence such as drug lot numbers and records from the Sept. 30 attempt.
• The third-party review Gov. Bill Lee ordered into what happened during the failed execution.
• Whether Lee acts on the attorneys' request to commute Pike's sentence to life without parole.
• Pike's medical recovery and whether her competency is restored, which Zivot said could take weeks or months to know.