Christa Pike "up and walking" for the first time eight days after botched Tennessee execution

Christa Pike is up and walking around her hospital room for the first time, eight days after surviving two doses of lethal injection in Tennessee’s botched execution attempt on 30 September.

Lawyer Stephen Farrell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Pike, 50, is doing “fairly well” but still faces serious physical and mental problems. He said he had not spoken to her directly, but had been told: “She is up and walking for the first time today, just around the room, not very far.”

Farrell said Pike’s arms are “very injured” and she can barely use them. She is believed to have pneumonia, a blood clot in one arm, and to be unable to swallow. Her family and legal team say they were told she was close to being taken off life support before she regained consciousness on Tuesday.

Pike remains “somewhat foggy,” he said, and can “lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she’s going.” On her prospects, Farrell said: “There could be some permanent damage. We don’t know that yet.”

A judge has ordered Tennessee to preserve all evidence from the failed execution, laying the groundwork for a possible future lawsuit.

Pike is believed to be the only person to survive an execution attempt by lethal injection. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, committed with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time and remains in prison.

(Sources: The Scottish Sun — https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/16913117/christa-pike-walking-arms-hospital-foggy/; Graphic Online — https://www.graphic.com.gh/international/international-news/christa-pike-now-walking-after-failed-us-execution-lawyer-tells-bbc.html)