NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike has taken her first steps with assistance, just one week after a failed attempt to execute the Tennessee woman left her in critical condition, her lawyers said Thursday.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as the state sought to put her to death eight days ago for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of a classmate. The drug didn’t kill her, and her lawyers said her arms were left burned and blistered.
For the first few days of her hospitalization, Pike was unconscious and on a ventilator.
Her first steps on Wednesday were “limited” and she required some assistance as she walked. She was also able to eat for the first time, her attorneys said.
But they also warned in a statement that there was still uncertainty about her future from both a physical and legal standpoint.
The failed execution on Sept. 30 has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty. Texas on Wednesday carried out the first execution in the U.S. since the Tennessee attempt.
