Christa Pike returns to Tennessee prison after hospital stay following failed execution

Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row prisoner whose lethal injection on Sept. 30 failed to kill her, has left the hospital and is back in state custody, her legal team announced Saturday.

Pike, 50, has returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the Nashville-area facility for women that has housed her for roughly three decades, WPLN and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. According to the Inquirer, the Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed she had been moved but would not elaborate.

Her lawyers said in the statement that Pike "is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances." They said she is still being treated inside the prison and that they are following her progress.

KPBS and WPLN reported that Pike received two rounds of pentobarbital during the attempt. Shortly after the first, she complained that her arm was burning, KPBS reported. Journalists in the chamber told the Inquirer she went on speaking, breathing and snoring. About an hour and a half in, observers were led out of the viewing area, WPLN reported, and an ambulance later carried Pike away for treatment.

The Inquirer, citing her attorneys, reported that she reached the hospital with blistering, burns and swollen arms, and that a day later she was unresponsive and relying on a ventilator. WPLN said her lawyers had feared she would die, but she eventually regained consciousness, began talking and could walk with assistance. Attorney Randy Spivey, who watched the procedure, has called Pike "a survivor," according to KPBS.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, no one before Pike is known to have lived through being given execution drugs, several outlets reported.

State corrections officials have not publicly identified the cause of the failure, WPLN reported. Experts have looked at whether a misplaced IV let the drug gather in surrounding tissue instead of reaching her veins. Tennessee's prison chief has stepped down. Outlets described Gov. Bill Lee's response differently: WPLN said he delayed the one remaining execution on this year's calendar, while the Inquirer said he paused every execution set through the end of 2026. Both said he called for a review, which the Inquirer characterized as being done by an outside party.

A Davidson County Chancery Court judge has directed prison officials to keep all evidence tied to the failed execution, including messages, KPBS reported.

Pike, then 18, was condemned for the 1995 slaying of Colleen Slemmer, 19, who attended the Knoxville Job Corps with her. Pike's boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, is serving a life term with no chance of parole, KPBS reported. The Inquirer added that a 2001 attack on a fellow prisoner led to a separate conviction for attempted first-degree murder.

Compiled by True News from reporting by KPBS, WPLN, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston 25 News. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/35