Christa Pike has been released from the hospital after surviving two botched lethal injection execution attempts.
After being discharged, the 50-year-old was sent back to the Tennessee prison where she has been incarcerated for the past 30 years.
The convicted murderer left the hospital 10 days after the state’s failed attempt to put her to death on September 30.
Pike was given two separate doses of pentobarbital, the barbiturate used by Tennessee for executions, yet survived.
Her lawyers described her survival as “medically unprecedented”.
They confirmed that she has since been returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre in Nashville, the women’s facility that has housed her since her 1996 conviction.
She continues to receive medical treatment at the prison.
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” the lawyers said.
Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital after surviving a botched lethal injection execution
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“She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”
Pike was rushed to a Nashville hospital following the botched execution, where her legal team said she was initially in a “critical condition” and placed on a ventilator.
By the following Tuesday, her attorneys revealed she had regained consciousness and was able to speak, nearly a week after the botched procedure.
Her lawyers described her physical recovery as “remarkable” in a Thursday update.
Christa Pike tortured and murdered classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 | REUTERSDescribing the moment Pike regained consciousness, her lawyers said: “Our understanding was the first thing she said was, ‘Where am I and who are you?’”
Despite her experiencing “a lot of cognitive confusion”, they added that she was “very aware that the state tried to execute her.”
They said the incident had left her “angry and confused”.
Pike’s attorneys added that significant questions remain about both the ordeal’s long-term effects and her legal standing going forward.
Pike was convicted of murdering her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
She was sentenced to death the following year, spending the next three decades on death row.
Had the execution succeeded, she would have become the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
In the hours before the scheduled procedure, Pike was granted a reprieve, but the US Supreme Court later overturned it and allowed the execution to proceed.
The fallout from the failed execution led to the resignation of Frank Strada, commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Correction.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has also announced that an independent review of the incident is underway.
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