Christa Pike remains unconscious and on a ventilator following the botched execution attempt in Tennessee

Christa Pike remains unconscious, intubated, and on a ventilator at a Nashville hospital as of Thursday night, one day after surviving the failed attempt to execute her, according to a brief filed by her attorneys with the Davidson County Chancery Court. Pike, 50, was in critical condition, with both arms swollen, burned, and blistered upon admission to the hospital.

Pike, convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate, would be the first person to survive an attempted lethal injection in the modern era of capital punishment in the United States. Her attorneys stated that medical staff are working to save her life and remove pentobarbital, the drug used in the state's lethal injection protocol, from her system, as well as treating her for "significant injuries to both arms."

In the same filing, her attorneys asked a judge to order the preservation of prison records related to the attempted execution, which they described as evidence of "incompetent and reckless actions" on the part of the authorities. The Tennessee Department of Corrections declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, suspended all executions in the state until the end of the year and ordered an investigation into Wednesday's events. However, Lee is in the final months of his term. Senator Marsha Blackburn, also a Republican and the leading candidate to succeed him, announced in a statement that she would seek to have Pike executed again. "This process has only extended the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer," she said, referring to the victim. "Their family and the families of other victims deserve swift justice."

Pike's attorneys formally requested that the governor grant her clemency and allow her to serve the remainder of her sentence in prison, describing the proceedings as an attempt at a cruel and torturous execution.

Pike's health condition has reignited a specific legal debate. If a person is unable to comprehend their own execution, the state may be barred from carrying it out. Two decades ago, the Supreme Court banned the execution of people with mental disabilities, deeming it a violation of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court also banned the execution of those who lack a "rational understanding" of the reason for their conviction.

"If you don't understand you're about to die, and do not understand you're about to die because the state believes you have committed murder, then you may not be executed," Christopher Slobogin, director of the Criminal Justice Program at Vanderbilt University, explained.

Her condition also presents a complex scenario for the medical staff treating her, since if Pike recovers, Tennessee could attempt to execute her again. "Professionals in health care are faced with difficult moral situations all the time — this is a particularly challenging one," Dr. Jeff Khan, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins, said. "I also think that they know that their job is to do the best they can for the patient in front of them and not to think about that."