Christa Pike has started walking again, her condition is improving

"Where am I? Who are you?". These are the first words spoken by Christa Pike when she woke up in bed in the Nashville hospital where she has been hospitalized since last week, when she survived two lethal injections. The 50-year-old woman had in fact been sentenced to death in Tennessee for the murder of a former classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, when she was 18 years old.

"She can talk but she's confused"

According to what her lawyers reported, Pike is now able to speak but is still confused, angry and still unclear what happened to her on September 30, immediately after the failed double lethal injection. Indeed, the lawyers specified to the BBC that the woman has even started walking again. Lawyer Stephen Ferrell said he had not spoken directly to the 50-year-old, but learned that she was moving for the first time in her hospital room, although she was still "confused."

“I was told on Tuesday night that his condition was quite good,” Ferrell added to the BBC. "Physically she has several problems, her arms are very injured and she can't use them much. But today she got up and walked for the first time, only around the room and not for a long time."

An uncertain fate

What will happen now to Christa Pike is not yet known. His case is now in uncharted territory, as he is believed to be the first person to have survived an attempted execution by lethal injection. A "disaster," as Slemmer's mother called it, who was among those pushing for Pike's death sentence.