Christa Pike Is Speaking in Full Sentences Weeks After Botched Execution, Her Attorney Says

Christa Pike, the death row inmate who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug intended to execute her on September 30, is now able to speak in full sentences.

An attorney for Pike, 50, told TMZ on Wednesday, October 21, that her speech and ability to walk have both improved. She is beginning to walk on her own and is communicating “more clearly,” according to the outlet.

Although Pike’s condition is beginning to improve, it is still too early to determine the long-term effects of the botched execution, her attorneys said. Her legal team told the outlet that her cognitive and psychological functioning are still being monitored. It could be another month or more before her medical team has a clearer picture of her recovery, the attorney said.

As Globe previously reported, Pike was released from the hospital less than two weeks after the failed execution. She returned to the Nashville-area prison where she’s been incarcerated for decades.

“Christa Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she has been housed for more than 30 years,” her attorneys, Stephen Ferrell, Luke Ihnen, Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason, said in a statement provided to CBS News on Saturday, October 10. “She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”

Pike was initially unconscious following the botched injections. Her legal team was reportedly informed that she was brain dead and that she was close to being taken off life support when she woke up on Tuesday, October 6.

Her first words were, “Where am I? Who are you?,” reports said at the time.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of first-degree murder for the 1995 killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the murder.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the only person to have survived a successfully completed lethal injection.

In the wake of Pike’s failed lethal injection, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a halt to the state’s remaining executions for the rest of the year. He also ordered an independent review into what happened.

Meanwhile, Pike’s legal team is pushing for the governor to have her sentence commuted to life in prison.