Attorneys for Christa Pike said Wednesday (October 7) they are seeking to preserve evidence related to last week's botched execution as they push for greater transparency about what occurred.

One of Pike's attorneys, Luke Ihnen, told reporters after a Tennessee court hearing that Pike's legal team is not yet seeking evidence from the state but wants records preserved.

Pike's attorneys also said she faces a lengthy recovery after unexpectedly regaining consciousness after her legal team was told she was brain dead.

Randy Spivey said Pike suffers from pneumonia, a blood clot and severe swelling in her arms and hands.

"She is angry and confused about everything right now," Spivey said, adding that many questions remain about the state's handling of the execution.

A Nashville judge said she would order Tennessee officials to preserve all evidence from the state's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike last week for a 1995 murder, including the syringes and other tools used in two botched lethal injections.

Pike, 50, was taken to a Nashville hospital, unconscious, critically ill and with severe arm injuries after two injections of the caustic barbiturate pentobarbital failed to kill her at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution last Wednesday.

She had regained consciousness and was speaking as of Tuesday and remains shackled to her hospital bed, according to her lawyers, as they seek to pierce the secrecy that normally surrounds execution procedures in Tennessee and other states.

They have said the botched execution, the second this year in Tennessee, amounts to torture in violation of the US Constitution's prohibition on cruel or unusual punishments.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for her role as a teenager in the torture and murder of her 19-year-old schoolmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, is the first person known to have survived a "completed execution attempt" in the US, her lawyers say.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 7, 2026) (ABC AFFILIATE WKRN - No use USA. No archive.)

1. ATTORNEYS FOR CHRISTA PIKE, LUKE IHNEN AND RANDY SPIVEY, WALKING TO PODIUM

2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, LUKE IHNEN, SAYING:

"As I said repeatedly, we have not asked the state to turn over any evidence at this point. Only demanding that they preserve it, so that her lawyers, experts and the public can learn what really happened Wednesday night."

3. WHITE FLASH

4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, LUKE IHNEN, SAYING:

"Today's hearing was about transparency, about why Christa, the courts, the media and the public should not simply take the state's word about what happened last Wednesday. Because as we saw a little bit today, their word is shrouded in secrecy, and legal jargons in attempts to obfuscate and obscure what really happened."

5. WHITE FLASH

6. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, RANDY SPIVEY, SAYING:

"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 is a long road ahead."

7. WHITE FLASH

8. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, RANDY SPIVEY, SAYING:

"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 a 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."

9. WHITE FLASH

10. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, RANDY SPIVEY, SAYING:

"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 there's still a lot of cognitive confusion. And so I will say that, she, 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 ask about the victim's family. Like she is....I think she is angry and confused about everything right now."

11. WHITE FLASH

12. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTA PIKE, LUKE IHNEN, SAYING:

"Until yesterday, Miss Pike was unable to to speak. She was unconscious. She was not able to to authorize us to file any any sort of new lawsuits. And so the motion that we filed is, is just to preserve evidence. It's the very, very first step of what will be a long legal battle we presume." / END OF PRESS CONFERENCE