Christa Pike walking and eating a week after botched Tennessee execution

Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital during a failed lethal injection attempt in Tennessee on 30 September. Her attorneys say she is now walking with assistance and eating for the first time.

Pike takes first steps a week after surviving botched lethal injection

Christa Pike has begun walking with assistance and eating again at a hospital, one week after surviving Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her attorneys said Thursday, according to apnews.com.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital administered on 30 September as the state sought to carry out her death sentence for the 1995 beating and stabbing of classmate Colleen Slemmer. The drug did not kill her. Her arms were left burned and blistered, her lawyers said, and for the first several days she remained unconscious and on a ventilator.

Her first steps, taken on Wednesday, were described as "limited." On Thursday she again required assistance to walk. She is also regaining some mobility in her arms and was able to eat for the first time since the attempt.

Her attorneys cautioned, however, that significant uncertainty remains — both about her physical recovery and her legal situation.

"While her physical recovery has been remarkable, significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured," her legal team said in a statement Thursday. "Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die."

Pike regained consciousness on Tuesday and was able to speak after awakening. Her attorneys had initially described her as "confused" in the hours after she came around, and said Thursday that she continues to struggle with concentration and memory. Doctors say it is too early to assess any long-term neurological impacts.

IV lines reportedly misplaced

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the pentobarbital to pool in Pike's tissue rather than enter her bloodstream. Her 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 public explanation of what went wrong.

During the procedure, Pike was asked for a final statement and said she was at peace. Around five minutes later she raised her head and said her arm hurt. She later appeared to lose consciousness but could be heard breathing heavily. Media witnesses were escorted from the witness room nearly 90 minutes into the execution, and an ambulance subsequently transported her to hospital.

Fate of death sentence unresolved

It remains unclear whether Tennessee will attempt to execute Pike again. Her attorneys say they will urge Republican Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"She should never be subjected to another execution attempt," her lawyers stated.

Lee has since postponed the state's only other scheduled execution this year and ordered a review into why the execution failed. The head of the state's prison system resigned in the aftermath of the botched attempt.

The failed execution has revived broader scrutiny of how states carry out capital punishment. Texas on Wednesday carried out the first execution in the United States since the Tennessee attempt, using the same lethal injection drug — pentobarbital — that was administered to Pike.

Source: Google News MT