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Death row inmate Christa Pike is speaking in full sentences after a botched execution attempt in September.
An attorney for Pike, 50, told TMZ on Wednesday, October 21, that the convicted murderer is able to “communicate more clearly and form full sentences.” She is also able to walk on her own more.
Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital in an attempted execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville on September 30. However, she survived the injections and was transported to a local hospital.
Pike, who is the sole woman on death row in Tennessee, was convicted of the murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1996.
Following the September execution attempt, Pike was discharged from the hospital earlier this month.
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” her legal team told The New York Times on October 10. “She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”
Following the debacle, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted executions in the state.
Lee said in an October 1 statement that he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”
Death row inmate Christa Pike claimed that her arm felt like it was going to “burst open” during her failed execution, according to an eyewitness. Tori Gessner, a reporter for Nashville’s WKRN, detailed what happened after Pike, 50, received the lethal injection on Wednesday, September 30, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. “At one point, she […]
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional but is effective,” he said in a statement, per the Associated Press.
A week after the incident, Pike’s legal team told People, “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. We cannot yet know the full emotional and psychological toll of that experience or how long it will take her to begin to heal.”
Pike’s attorneys said she “continues to express concern for others, particularly the family of her victim Colleen Slemmer.”
May Martinez, the mother of Pike’s victim, attended the attempted execution and described it as a “mess” to NBC News at the time.
It is not yet known whether the state of Tennessee will attempt to execute Pike again.
“The state has made no promises that Ms. Pike will not be subject to a future execution,” one of her attorneys, Luke Ihnen, said in court earlier this month, per CNN.
