Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row inmate whose lawyers say was believed to be “brain dead,” regained consciousness Tuesday, nearly a week after the state failed two attempts to lethally inject her.
“To the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking,” attorney Randy Spivey told reporters Wednesday following a court hearing in Nashville.
“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is that Christa has a long road to recovery,” he added.
Pike had been kept on life support since the botched execution attempt on Sept. 30. Her first words upon waking, according to Spivey, were “Where am I?” and “Who are you?” He said she remains confused and faces a lengthy recovery.
Spivey said Pike has pneumonia, cannot swallow and has a blood clot in one arm. He described her hands as looking “like if you were to blow up a surgical glove.” It remains unclear whether she will ever regain the use of her arms.
Evidence preservation order
The update came after Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles granted Pike’s emergency motion to preserve evidence from the failed execution attempt during Wednesday’s hearing.
Myles ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to retain physical evidence, including needles, IV lines, package labels and drugs, along with text messages, encrypted communications, photographs and recordings. She specified that messages on apps like Signal must also be preserved.
“To any extent that any information has already been, any information or any evidence has already been discarded, deleted, destroyed or no longer exists, I want TDOC to take an affirmative step, to try to claw back that information,” Myles said.
What happens next
Pike’s legal fate remains unresolved. Gov. Bill Lee has halted all Tennessee executions for the remainder of 2026 while the state investigates what went wrong during the attempt. Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers declined to say in Wednesday’s hearing whether the state would pursue another death warrant. Pike’s attorneys have asked that her sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Two others involved in the killing received lesser sentences — one who was 17 at the time of the crime and another who testified for the state under a plea deal.
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