Christa Pike Discharged From Hospital, Returned to Prison

Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections, has been released from a hospital, her lawyers and officials said on Oct. 12.

Pike, 50, is back at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, also known as the Tennessee Prison for Women, according to Pike’s attorneys. She had been in a hospital since surviving an execution attempt on Sept. 30.

“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” Pike’s lawyers told The Epoch Times in an email.

“She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”

A Tennessee Department of Corrections spokeswoman confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times that Pike has been returned to the rehabilitation center in Nashville.

“No further information is available at this time,” the spokeswoman said.

Pike was convicted in the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer on the University of Tennessee campus. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked Slemmer with a box cutter and other weapons and murdered her. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was also convicted but not sentenced to death due to being a minor.

Pike fought against the death penalty, with attorneys arguing in recent court filings that she was sexually assaulted when she was a child and that the state’s execution protocol, including using only pentobarbital, would cause Pike extreme and unnecessary suffering.

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Pike, and her execution proceeded at another prison in Nashville on Sept. 30.

Pike survived despite being injected with two doses of pentobarbital. She was later rushed to a hospital.

Attorneys for Pike previously said, following the failed execution and time in a hospital, that she had regained consciousness and was eating, walking, and talking.

Witnesses described hearing Pike offer final words before being injected. They said they could not see the IV (intravenous) line being inserted because of the way Pike was placed. They said they heard Pike choking, then snoring.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered all executions halted for the remainder of the year as a third party reviews the failed execution attempt. He has said he was disappointed that the execution was not carried out effectively as it should have been.

Pike was the first person to survive lethal injection, according to nonprofit organization Death Penalty Information Center.

“What happened to Christa Pike can be attributed to the extreme secrecy Tennessee officials have maintained about their execution procedures, their refusal to answer reasonable questions, and their unwillingness to accept responsibility for their mistakes,” Robin Maher, the center’s executive director, said in a statement.

Several hours after the execution failed, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said that it followed every step of the state’s lawful execution protocol.

“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures,” it said.

A judge in Tennessee on Oct. 7 granted a request from Pike’s attorneys to order state officials to preserve evidence from the failed attempt, including all communications between officials and 911 personnel, communications between state actors regarding the decision to call for an ambulance, and communications between officials and the governor’s office.