Christa Pike released from hospital following botched execution, attorneys say
By Sabina Ghebremedhin and Ivan Pereira
October 10, 2026, 9:15 AM
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Christa Pike was released from the hospital and transferred back to prison more than a week after her botched execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said Saturday.
Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender, said in a statement that their client will continue to receive medical care in prison and they would track her recovery.
Pike was slated to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 30, however, after the injections were administered, she appeared to still be breathing and was rushed to a hospital.
Christa Pike unconscious and on ventilator in hospital after botched execution, attorneys say
"She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances," Pike's attorneys said in a statement.
Pike, the lone woman on Tennessee's death row, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Pike's attorneys raised concerns about her execution in the months leading up to it, arguing the medications used in the execution carried a huge risk of pain and suffering.
Her attorneys filed an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court last week seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all relevant physical, written and electronic evidence related to the execution attempt.
A judge granted the motion during a hearing on Wednesday.
According to the motion, Pike "could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly" while being administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital, at one point stating that her arm "feels like it's about to burst open."
At least seven needles were used to gain IV access, with one "bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," the motion stated.
The motion described pentobarbital, a sedating medication, as being "caustic and highly alkaline" and that it "burns upon contact." Both of Pike's arms were "swollen, burned, and blistered" when she arrived at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion stated.
Christa Pike seeing 'remarkable physical recovery' but cognitive challenges remain: Lawyers
She was initially on a ventilator following the execution attempt before regaining consciousness on Tuesday, her attorneys said.
Pike's attorneys described her recovery as "medically unprecedented" and said they expect a "long road to recovery."
"We're not sure exactly of the long-term effects, but she's clearly cognitively not quite back to normal and may have a long ways to go," Ferrell told ABC News Thursday.
Pike is the first person reported to have survived lethal injection after being given medications, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, whose executive director referred to the failed attempt as "the worst we've ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era."
Pike's attorneys have called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Record of 'botched' executions follows Tennessee's corrections chief
Lee ordered a temporary halt to scheduled executions in the state following Pike's botched execution and Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced his resignation last week.
The governor's office said it appointed former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct an independent review of the Tennessee Department of Correction's execution attempt that "will seek to determine whether the protocol was followed and consider whether additional recommendations are necessary to ensure the State's protocol continues to be lawful and effective."
-ABC News's Meredith Deliso and Tesfaye Negussie contributed to this report.
