Christa Pike was still alive after two doses of a lethal drug in Tennessee, and her attorneys said she was getting ‘lifesaving medical care’

Christa Pike, who survived a lethal injection attempt in Tennessee, has been released from a hospital and returned to prison, according to her attorneys. As reported by CBS News, she is back at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where she had been housed for more than 30 years before her scheduled execution on September 30.

Pike, 50, was given two doses of a lethal drug that night but did not die. Her attorneys said she was later receiving “lifesaving medical care” at a hospital.

Her legal team, made up of Stephen Ferrell, Luke Ihnen, Randy Spivey, and Kelly Gleason, said in a statement that she is grateful to the first responders and medical team who cared for her. They said she is still receiving medical care at the prison and that they will continue tracking her recovery.

Pike’s survival has no known precedent in the US

Pike is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Its executive director, Robin Maher, called her survival “singular and unparalleled.” Other failed executions in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas typically involved problems establishing an IV line that prevented the drugs from being administered at all.

A media witness, Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler, said Pike could be heard loudly snoring about an hour after the procedure began. Chandler also reported that Pike looked toward prison officials and asked whether it was supposed to feel that way. Death can also come with no sentence involved, as with a 75-year-old referee who died after a piledriver at a wrestling show in Mexico. 

Her attorneys filed an emergency motion to halt the execution, saying she had not lost consciousness and retained a heartbeat. She was taken by ambulance to an area hospital, and her attorneys later said she had regained consciousness and was speaking from her hospital bed. Her condition improved over the following days, and her attorneys reported that she was walking with assistance, her arms were healing, her lungs were clear, and she was eating a regular diet.

Pike was convicted in 1995 of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a former classmate. She was 18 at the time of the crime, which made her the youngest woman sent to death row in the country in the modern capital punishment era. The killing took place in a wooded area of the University of Tennessee campus.

Tennessee has faced scrutiny over its execution protocols. In May, the state halted the execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers after officers could not establish an IV line for more than an hour, and his attorneys alleged he had been tortured as staff repeatedly punctured his body.

Gov. Bill Lee announced that Tennessee will cancel its only remaining execution scheduled this year. He said the pause will allow a comprehensive, third-party review of what occurred during the attempt.

Pike’s attorneys have said the concerns they raised about the state’s protocol, including vein access and the effectiveness of the drug, were proven true by what happened. At an emergency hearing in Davidson County court, they requested and were granted a decision requiring the state to preserve records and evidence of the failed procedure.

They are pushing Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without parole, and Ihnen told the court the state has made “no promises” she will not face a future execution.