Christa Pike is “up and walking” in her hospital room as the convicted killer continues to recover from the US state of Tennessee’s failed attempt to carry out her death sentence.
The 50-year-old survived two lethal injections on 30 September, intended to end her life as punishment for murdering a teenager in 1995 when she was 18.
Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell has told the BBC that he had learned that despite being mentally “foggy”, she was now moving around her hospital room.
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“She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far,” Ferrell told BBC’s Radio 4 program late on Wednesday, local time.
His update came after fellow lawyers for Pike confirmed on Wednesday that she had regained consciousness while still handcuffed to her bed and despite having no recollection of the execution attempt, was able to talk.
Another member of Pike’s legal team, Randall Spivey, had told reporters earlier on Wednesday that Pike was “angry and confused about everything right now”.
“She is very aware that the state tried to execute her,” Spivey said to awaiting media after a court hearing on Wednesday where a judge ordered Tennessee officials to preserve syringes and other evidence from the botched execution.
Ferrell subsequently added that the drug pentobarbital – which was in the two lethal injections Pike received on September 30 – was still having a considerable impact on her.
He described her mental state as “good and bad”.
“Good that she is fairly with it, but she’s also somewhat foggy. She can lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she’s going.”
“I assume (the situation for Pike) will keep improving, but there could be some permanent damage. We don’t know that yet.”
He said that psychological support would be vital for Pike moving forward.
Physically though she was “fairly well”, Ferrell told the BBC.
“What’s been described to me is that physically there’s quite a bit going on, that her arms are very injured and she’s not able to use them very much.”
Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions for the rest of the year while investigators look into the botched executions of Pike and of Tony Carruthers in May, when prison officials were unable to set up intravenous lines.
Pike was sentenced to death for her role as a teenager in the 1995 torture and murder of her 19-year-old schoolmate Colleen Slemmer.
She is the first person known to have survived a “completed execution attempt” in the United States, her lawyers say, calling it a violation of the constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments.
