Under strict surveillance and intubated: Inside Christa Pike's hospital room after failed execution in Tennessee

C hrista Pike ’s failed execution has now become a medical and legal crisis, with her attorneys saying they still don't know whether she will recover from the effects of two doses of pentobarbital administered by the state.

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Sunday that Pike , 50, remains hospitalized on a ventilator and under guard.

Asked whether she had regained consciousness since the execution attempt, Ferrell told CNN’s State of the Union: “Not that I am aware of.

“She is guarded. I’m not sure who may have seen her. I know I have not seen her.”

He added that Tennessee hasn't said whether it would try to execute Pike again if she survives.

Pike may never fully recover

Ferrell said the uncertainty surrounding Pike ’s condition could last for days, particularly because doctors are still trying to determine the long-term effects of the pentobarbital.

“I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is, as in the long term prognosis,” he said. He also warned that Pike “may not fully recover.”

Witnesses to the execution attempt said Pike appeared to be in severe pain in one arm before losing consciousness. Her attorneys later said her arms were burned and blistered after the lethal injection process.

“We don’t know right now, and we may never know what sort of torture she endured during that process, where her consciousness was, what physical pain there was, what mental torture she went through,” Ferrell said.

Pike had previously assigned medical power of attorney to another person, who is now making decisions about her care. Her legal team has not identified that person publicly.

Tennessee execution system comes under renewed scrutiny

The failed execution has also intensified scrutiny of Tennessee’s death penalty procedures.

Pike ’s execution was delayed for more than eight hours while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a lower-court ruling that temporarily halted the process. The Supreme Court ultimately overturned that ruling, allowing the execution to proceed.

Her lawyers have since asked a court to order Tennessee officials to preserve all records, communications, images and video connected to the execution attempt.

“The state of Tennessee has got to start telling its people exactly what it is doing so that in the democratic process, the people of Tennessee can decide if that’s what they want to be done in their name,” Ferrell added.

The incident follows another failed execution attempt in May, when Tennessee stopped the execution of Tony Carruthers after staff couldn't establish a secondary IV line.

Gov. Bill Lee has now ordered an independent investigation into the state’s capital punishment system. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Her lawyers are asking that her sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. If she survives, the question of whether Tennessee seeks another execution date remains unresolved.