Christa Pike "Up and Walking" After Botched Execution Attempt

Christa Pike is up and walking around her hospital room, according to her attorneys, more than a week after surviving two lethal injections in Tennessee on September 30.

Attorney Stephen Ferrell stated Thursday that Pike's arms are very injured and she cannot use them much, and her head is somewhat foggy, causing her to lose her train of thought easily. Pike, 50, remains hospitalized after being taken unconscious to a Nashville hospital and placed on a ventilator following the failed execution. Pike's attorneys announced Tuesday she was awake and speaking, calling her recovery medically unprecedented.

Her first words upon waking were "Where am I?" and "Who are you?" She is angry and confused, has pneumonia, cannot swallow, and has a blood clot in one arm. Medical staff requested her shackles be removed, but the request was denied. Pike is believed to be the first person in modern history to survive an attempted lethal injection.

Texas on Wednesday executed 46-year-old Jamaal Howard, who fatally shot a convenience store clerk, using the same drug, pentobarbital. Howard was pronounced dead 19 minutes after receiving the lethal dose. After his injection, he took a couple of breaths, gasped, and made snoring sounds that quieted within 30 seconds. Pike was administered two doses of the pentobarbital solution, and witnesses reported her snoring and moaning but continuing to breathe.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered a third-party investigation into the incident and halted executions in the state for the rest of the year. A court has ordered state officials to preserve all evidence related to Pike's failed execution. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, whom she tortured and killed at age 18.