A United States death row inmate, Christa Pike, has been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison after surviving a botched lethal injection in Tennessee.
Pike, 50, was moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre, a women’s correctional facility where she had been incarcerated for about three decades, according to a statement from her lawyers on Saturday.
Her legal team said she remained under medical supervision following the failed execution attempt on September 30.
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,” the lawyers said.
Tennessee officials had attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection over the 1995 killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, who was beaten and stabbed to death.
Pike reportedly survived two doses of pentobarbital, the drug administered during the execution procedure. Her condition deteriorated to the point that she required a ventilator, raising concerns among her lawyers that she might not survive.
She subsequently regained consciousness and began speaking and walking with assistance.
The Death Penalty Information Centre described Pike as the first known person to survive after being administered lethal injection drugs during an execution attempt.
The circumstances surrounding the failed procedure remain unclear, as Tennessee authorities have yet to provide a full explanation of what went wrong.
Experts have reportedly examined whether incorrectly positioned intravenous lines prevented the drugs from entering Pike’s bloodstream as intended.
In a court filing, her lawyers raised concerns about the execution team’s handling of the procedure, stating that “apparently, at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed.”
The incident has intensified scrutiny of Tennessee’s lethal injection procedures and raised fresh questions about the state’s execution protocols.
Following the incident, Governor Bill Lee postponed the state’s only other scheduled execution for the year and ordered a review of the failed procedure.
The state’s prison chief also resigned in the aftermath of the incident.
