Christa Pike is up and walking after surviving two execution attempts in Tennessee that left her unconscious and on a ventilator for multiple days in a Nashville hospital.
Attorneys for Pike said Thursday the 50-year-old woman is “up and walking” around her hospital room, but still has mental fatigue after surviving two doses of lethal injection last week.
“She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far,” Stephen Ferrell, one of Pike’s lawyers, told the BBC.
Ferrell said Pike’s arms are still unusable after the botched execution. During the execution, Pike’s lawyers said her arm felt like it was “about to burst open.” Additionally, lawyers for Pike stated that “one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed.”
“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,” Ferrell said on Thursday.
It was revealed by her legal team on Wednesday that Pike has a blood clot in one of her arms, both of which are “tremendously swollen.” She also has pneumonia.
However, Ferrell said Pike’s mental health is a work in progress.
“I think it’s kind of good and bad,” he said of her mental state. “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.”
While Pike was still unconscious, her lawyers said there was concern she may be brain dead, and there were discussions about taking her off life support. Ferrell said Pike’s future is still unknown despite her recent improvement.
“I assume [Pike’s condition] will keep improving, but there could be some permanent damage,” he said. “We don’t know that yet.”
The latest update follows Pike’s lawyers appearing in court on Wednesday, where a Nashville judge ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve any and all evidence related to Pike’s execution attempt Sept. 30. Following the hearing, her lawyers held a press conference and shed light on Pike’s first moments awake.
Upon first waking up, Pike asked where she was, and her lawyers said she had been made “aware of what they did to her.” Additionally, they described Pike as being “angry and confused” as she had a tube down her throat.
CHRISTA PIKE AWAKE AND SPEAKING WEEK AFTER BOTCHED EXECUTION, ATTORNEYS SAY
On Tuesday, Pike’s attorneys praised the medical staff treating her, saying they “treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her.”
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges and sentenced to death in 1996, when she was 20. Pike was convicted and sentenced for murdering her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was 18, alongside Pike’s then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was sentenced to life in prison.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
