Christa Pike discharged from hospital after botched execution: lawyers
Christa Pike was released from hospital and sent back to prison 10 days after shockingly surviving a botched execution, her lawyers revealed.
“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.
“She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”
Pike, 50, was rushed to hospital after surviving two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital on Sept. 30.
The death row inmate was unconscious and put on a ventilator — and her lawyers believed she was brain dead on Monday night.
However, she regained consciousness on Tuesday — the day her legal team thought her life support was being switched off — and started communicating.
The convicted murderer asked, “Where am I and who are you?” when she first woke up and even started walking the next day.
Here’s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:
- Christa Pike suffering ‘cognitive challenges’ and ‘profound psychological trauma’ after botched execution: lawyers
- Christa Pike scores major legal win after botched execution
- Christa Pike’s aunt reveals ‘excited’ reaction to bungled execution after killer was ‘ready to go’
- ‘Polite’ Christa Pike tried to help executioners during bungled lethal injections, lawyer claims
Pike suffered from a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia and “extraordinary” swelling after the bungled execution, her lawyers claimed earlier this week.
They also said she was dealing with “cognitive challenges” and “profound psychological trauma,” adding that “significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured.”
While in hospital, Pike was under guard by three armed corrections officers and, despite having her handcuffs removed Wednesday, remained shackled by one foot to the bed, her attorney, Luke Ihnen, wrote in a court filing.
The death row inmate was sentenced after she murdered, tortured and mutilated her 19-year-old high school classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995.
Pike was due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, but instead became the first person in the US believed to have survived after being given the lethal injection.
The convict’s lawyers have pleaded with Republican Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence, claiming Pike has “endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”