Christa Pike “angry and confused” after waking up from botched execution says attorney VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT

Christa Pike woke up in a Tennessee hospital on Tuesday, six days after her botched execution by lethal injection.

A court hearing was held earlier today as a judge granted her defense team’s request demanding that all the evidence from the execution be preserved, including “anything that was in the actual room.”

After the hearing, Christa Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey issued a statement and spoke with reporters outside the courthouse.

Spivey revealed that Christa was “angry and confused” in the hours after regaining consciousness. He also said that Christa regaining consciousness came as a complete surprise to her doctors, who were making plans to remove her from life support the night before she woke up.

“On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead, and that life support would be removed the next day,” Spivey said. “But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team, and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking.”

Spivey ended his prepared statement by addressing the possibility of another execution for Christy.

“We have to ask how much suffering is enough. We continue to ask Governor Lee to commute Chris’s death sentence. After all we have seen and all that we still do not know, it is unimaginable that the state would try to execute her again.”

Christy Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

RANDY SPIVEY PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT

Below is the full video of the press conference that included Christa Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey and Luke Ihnen from the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.

We’ve also transcribed everything Randy Spivey had to say, including his answers to questions from reporters. The audio for the reporters was very low, so we’ve summed up their questions based on what could be heard and Mr. Spivey’s responses.

TRANSCRIPT OF RANDY SPIVEY’S STATEMENT ON CHRISTA PIKE CASE

Christa is a survivor. She survived child sexual abuse, she survived rapes of multiple men, she survived a suicide attempt when she was 12, and she survived the state’s attempt to execute her. She deserves answers about what was done to her, and the people of Tennessee deserve those answers too.

On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead, and that life support would be removed the next day. But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team, and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking.

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. She has a blood clot in one of her arms, she has pneumonia, she is not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten. She cannot move either of her arms. Both of her arms and hands are tremendously swollen, and we do not know what, if any, function she will regain in her arms. But we do know that there’s a long road ahead.

And that is just the physical toll that all of this has taken. Neither we nor Christa have even begun to process what this means for her mental health.

Christa was at peace. She helped the execution team find what they thought was venous access. She was kind and polite as they worked for an hour, stabbing her arm with needle after needle, and then she felt the burn of the pentobarbital. And then she woke up in a hospital surrounded by people she didn’t know with the tube down her throat. We don’t know the toll all of this will take.

But Christa is a survivor, and we remain hopeful. All of this was foreseeable and foreseen. What happened to Christa is exactly what the state was warned would happen. And there are so many questions that need to be answered, not by Christa, but by the state of Tennessee. But one of those questions has to be: How much suffering is enough? Christa has endured child sexual abuse, physical abuse, rapes and more than 20 years of solitary confinement.

And then September 30th happens. We have to ask how much suffering is enough. We continue to ask Governor Lee to commute Chris’s death sentence. After all we have seen and all that we still do not know, it is unimaginable that the state would try to execute her again.

RANDY SPIVEY ANSWERS QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS ABOUT CHRISTA PIKE

What’s the first thing Christa said?

SPIVEY: I was not in the room when she woke up, so I don’t want to speculate too much. Our understanding was the first thing she said was, “Where am I and who are you?”

There’s still a lot of cognitive confusion. And so I will say that she has wanted to know what’s happened and she’s asked about several people. She’s asked about her team. She’s asked about she’s asked about the victim’s family. I think she is angry and confused about everything right now.

Is she aware the state tried to execute her?

SPIVEY: She is very aware that the state tried to execute her. And again I want to, I don’t want to say what she remembers and what she doesn’t remember at this point because I think that’s evolving. And I want to be very, very careful of that. But she’s very aware of what they did, what they did to her — up to a point, and that’s as best I can do.

???

SPIVEY: I’m not going to talk about tests and medical procedures because I’m not a doctor and I want to be very careful of HIPAA things. I can only comment on what I’ve seen. And so what I will say is, like, there was levels of confusion and there were times that she, for lack of a better…kind of spaced out a little while. I don’t know about the rest and I’m not going to comment on the rest.

What kind of medical care is Christa receiving? Is she connected to any machines?

SPIVEY: I’m not going to comment on the medical care…or what she’s connected to. One, because I have no idea what any of that stuff means. I’m not a doctor and so I want to be very careful with that.

Is Christa being restrained?

SPIVEY: …You’re just asking about the restraints? Yes, so she is she is shackled at her feet and on her right arm to the bed.

Can you share additional details about the injuries to Christa’s arms? Is there a chance they will need to be amputated?

SPIVEY: I have no idea about the second part. I’m not going to make a diagnosis. And a lot of the arm was covered up, obviously with with medical whatever. I will say that, like, the swelling is what I noticed. And her hands looked like if you were to blow up a surgical glove. Like they were they were — the swelling was extraordinary. And that’s that’s probably as far as I can go with that.

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com