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Christa Pike Survives Botched Execution, Returns to Prison

1:14 AM ETConfirmed

Politics Desk

In Short: Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate, has been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison after surviving a botched lethal injection attempt on September 30, her lawyers said on Saturday.

Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate, has been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison after surviving a botched lethal injection attempt on September 30, her lawyers said on Saturday.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, had met at a job training camp for low-income young people.

Pike's attorneys stated that she was grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances.

The failed execution has drawn attention to the US death penalty, with Pike surviving two doses of lethal-injection drugs, renewing scrutiny of capital punishment.

Pike's legal team had long argued that health issues and a troubled childhood should mean her death sentence should be reduced.

Pike's attorneys had requested that she be hanged instead, citing concerns about her platelet disorder and small veins, which could make the lethal injection both painful and ineffective.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has since postponed the state’s only other scheduled execution this year and ordered a review of what went wrong.

Pike is back at the Deborah K Johnson rehabilitation center, where she has been imprisoned for the last three decades, her attorneys said.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong in the execution.

Pike's attorneys wrote in a court filing that 'apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed.'

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital and returned to a Tennessee women’s prison after surviving the US state’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers said on Saturday.
• Luke Ihnen, attorney for Christa Pike, speaks during a news conference after a judge ruled the Tennessee Department of Corrections must preserve all evidence related to the failed execution of Pike, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn.
• NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, has been moved back to prison, her attorneys said Saturday.
• Convicted murderer Christa Pike has returned to prison and is recovering from her failed execution, according to a statement from her attorneys.
• However, they said Pike woke up and began talking and walking with assistance.
• Pike, 50, was discharged from the hospital and is back at the Deborah K.
• Photographs of Colleen Slemmer, who was murdered in 1995, are displayed outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept.
• The Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong in the execution.
• The statement says Pike is back at the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years.
• Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital as the state attempted to execute her by lethal injection on Sept.
• Pike's lawyers said in their statement that she was "grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances".
• Pike had been in a hospital since the failed execution.

What's still developing

• The failed execution has drawn attention to the US death penalty as a separate controversy unfolds over the military’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.
• The botched execution sent Pike to a local hospital in Nashville, where she regained consciousness on Tuesday and began the process of walking again on Wednesday.
• Justice correspondent Ali Rogin discussed questions surrounding the state of capital punishment with Austin Sarat, author of "Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution."
• A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit granted Pike, 50, a stay “until further order of this court,” The Tennessean reported.
• (OSV News) — After Tennessee officials failed in their Sept. 30 attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder, a number of faith leaders, including Tennessee’s Catholic bishops, have called for her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
• The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed just before 6 p.m.
• The curtain shielding the execution chamber dropped for a final time at 8:05 p.m., while witnesses could still hear her "snoring." At 6:27 p.m., witnesses arrived at the Nashville facility and waited nearly an hour.
• Her scheduled 10 a.m. execution on Wednesday was paused nearly one hour before it was re-scheduled after a federal appeals court requested more time to determine whether Pike’s history of childhood sexual abuse was fully presented when a jury returned a guilty verdict and sentenced her to death.
• Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot joins Bill Hemmer to discuss the legal fallout after a judge ordered Tennessee officials to preserve evidence from the botched execution of Christa Pike.
• Rain showers early becoming more intermittent overnight.
• I've seen nearly 500 executions - but never one like Christa Pike's I interviewed Christa Pike 20 years ago - I can't stop thinking about her What happened in Christa Pike's failed US execution, and how did she survive?
• Austin Sarat, Author, "Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution": What happened to Christa Pike was shocking but not surprising.

Sources

• Al Jazeeralink
• BBClink
• Bluefield Daily Telegraphlink
• CBS Newslink
• Caledonian Recordlink
• Dailywirelink
• FOX 8 Local Firstlink
• Gulf Coast News and Weatherlink
• NBC Newslink
• Newsweeklink
• Ottumwa Courierlink
• PBSlink
• The Alabama News Wirelink
• The Guardianlink
• The Killeen Daily Heraldlink
• Washingtonexaminerlink
• CBS News — video link