Christa Pike Walking, Eating After Failed Execution

Christa Pike, 50, has begun walking with assistance and eating again at a hospital a week after surviving Tennessee's attempt to execute her with lethal drugs. According to her attorneys, Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital during the state's attempt to carry out her death sentence for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Her arms were left burned and blistered, and she was unconscious and on a ventilator for the first few days of her hospitalization.

Her first steps on Wednesday were 'limited,' and she required some assistance as she walked on Thursday, her lawyers said in a statement. She is also regaining mobility in her arms, and she was able to eat for the first time. However, her attorneys warned that uncertainty remains about her physical recovery and her legal standing after the attempt to carry out her death sentence.

The failed execution on Sept. 30 has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty. Texas carried out the first execution in the U.S. since the Tennessee attempt, highlighting ongoing debates about capital punishment methods. Pike's attorneys have urged Republican Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without parole, arguing that she should never be subjected to another execution attempt.

Lee has postponed the state's only other scheduled execution this year and ordered a review of why the execution failed. The state's prison chief resigned after the execution attempt. Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream. Pike's attorneys wrote in a court filing that 'apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed.' State officials have offered no explanation of what occurred.

Pike regained consciousness on Tuesday and was able to speak after awakening, her attorneys said. They initially described her as 'confused' soon after regaining consciousness and noted that she continued to struggle with concentration and memory. Doctors say it is too early to assess the long-term impacts, the attorneys added.

A Tennessee judge has granted a request to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution of Christa Pike while a state attorney declined to say whether a second execution attempt would be made. The judge in Davidson County Chancery Court ordered that anything in the state’s possession that was in the execution room, including medical equipment and paper and electronic recordings, 'needs to be preserved and maintained' at her attorneys’ request.

Pike's legal team has argued that the evidence would show the Tennessee Department of Correction violated her constitutional rights by subjecting her to cruel and unusual punishment after failing to kill her through lethal injection. Officials attempted to execute her last week with two doses of pentobarbital as punishment for the 1995 murder of a 19-year-old classmate.

Pike was taken to the hospital by ambulance and was believed to be brain dead. There were plans to take her off life support, but in a 'shock to everyone,' she woke up on Tuesday and began talking, attorney Randy Spivey told reporters following the hearing. 'Christa has a long road to recovery,' he said, describing her as unable to swallow or move either arm.

'All of this was foreseeable and foreseen,' he said, with her attorneys arguing they had warned that lethal injection would be difficult because of the small size of her veins. 'There’s still a lot of cognitive confusion,' Spivey said of her mental state. She’s asked about her situation, is aware of 'what they did to her, up to a point' and is 'angry and confused, about everything.'

Luke Ihnen, a second attorney representing her, told the judge, 'The state has made no promises that it will not seek a future execution,' and that if a second execution is attempted, 'the same thing is likely to happen.' When asked by the judge, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General William Ayers declined to say whether the state would attempt a second execution, saying any new execution order would come from the state’s Supreme Court.