Christa Pike walking and talking in hospital after bungled execution
Updated . First published at
US death row inmate Christa Pike has been walking around her hospital room after surviving a botched execution, her lawyer says.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of lethal injection drug pentobarbital as executioners attempted to put her to death last Wednesday for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
Christa Pike is now up and walking after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week. J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel/Imagn Images via CNN
Her lawyer Stephen Ferrell has told the BBC Pike was now walking, but her mental condition remained “somewhat foggy”.
“She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, you know, not very far,” he said on Thursday (Friday AEDT).
“There could be some permanent damage. We don’t know that yet.”
Ferrell said he had not seen her in person and was relying on reports about her condition from colleagues.
The lethal injection attempt at a Tennessee prison left her arms burned and blistered, her legal team said earlier.
The Death Penalty Information Centre said Pike was the only person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.
Christa Pike, then aged 18, cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville. WBIR-TV via AP
Pike’s survival raises further questions about her medical and legal future. Her lawyers said her prognosis remained unclear and that she faced a long recovery.
Her lawyer said they were grateful for the first responders and the medical team at the hospital “who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted further executions following Pike’s hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”
Ferrell said it remained largely unknown what the next steps were for Pike.
Her legal team oppose any new attempt at lethal injection by prison authorities.
They are also demanding Lee downgrade Pike’s punishment to the lesser sentence of life in prison without parole.
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