Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has begun walking short distances in her hospital room after surviving a September 30 execution attempt, according to her attorney, who said her recovery remains uncertain.
Attorney Stephen Ferrell told BBC Radio 4 that Pike was “up and walking,” but that she could move only a short distance. Ferrell said he had not spoken with Pike directly and relied on information about her condition.
Ferrell said Pike’s arms were swollen and barely functioning, and she was having difficulty maintaining her train of thought. He said her legal team did not yet know whether she would suffer permanent damage.
The update follows Pike’s return to consciousness on October 6, nearly a week after Tennessee administered two doses of pentobarbital during the execution attempt. Her attorneys said she spent several days unconscious and on a ventilator.
Randy Spivey, another attorney for Pike, recounted her initial questions at an October 7 news conference outside a Nashville courthouse. He said he understood that she asked, “Where am I and who are you?”
Spivey said he was not in the room when she awoke. He noted that Pike was experiencing some cognitive confusion and described her as being “angry and confused about everything right now.”
As The Dallas Express previously reported, the failed execution sent Pike to a hospital and prompted scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution procedures.
At an October 7 hearing, Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles ordered the state to preserve evidence from the execution attempt, the Associated Press reported. The material includes drugs, syringes, IV lines, recordings and communications. Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers said officials had already collected and logged evidence from the death chamber.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in its September 30 statement that officials followed the state’s established protocol and that it authorized no additional procedures.
An October 3 announcement from Gov. Bill Lee’s office said the state retained former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to review the attempt. Lee called off the remaining scheduled execution this year pending that review.
Pike, 50, remains under a death sentence for murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995. The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld Pike’s convictions and sentence in 1998, finding that the evidence supported the jury’s determination that the killing involved torture or serious physical abuse.
Pike’s attorneys want Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without parole. At the October 7 hearing, Ayers declined to say whether Tennessee would seek another execution, according to AP.
