Christa Pike is discharged from hospital after surviving botched execution attempt

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By SOPHIE GABLE, US REPORTER 16:31 10 Oct 2026, updated 17:19 10 Oct 2026

Christa Pike has been discharged from a Tennessee hospital after she survived a botched execution attempt on death row.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death on first-degree murder charges and was hospitalized after state officials botched a lethal injection.

Her attorneys said in a statement on Saturday that she has been discharged and returned to Deborah K Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she had served time for over 30 years before she was scheduled to be put to death.

‘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,’ her attorneys continued.

Pike has been behind bars since 1995 for the beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Her execution was scheduled for September 30, but she woke up after two failed doses of pentobarbital.

Pike’s arms were left burned and blistered after her lawyers said the doses were injected into her arms and not her veins.

For the first few days of her hospitalization, Pike was unconscious and on a ventilator, her legal team previously said.

Her first steps on Wednesday were ‘limited,’ and she needed assistance walking on Thursday. She is also regaining arm mobility and was able to eat for the first time earlier this week.

The failed execution has put death sentences in the state under a microscope. Governor Bill Lee postponed another execution this year and the state’s prison chief resigned following Pike’s hospitalization.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence from her failed execution.

Judge I’Ashea Myles said: ‘This case is unique to say the least.’

‘Take special care not to lose, misplace, or accidentally delete any information pertinent to this investigation.’

During the hearing, Pike’s lawyer, Luke Ihnen, asked the judge to remove the shackles on her hospital bed and give her access to a phone.

‘Up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel, unable to communicate with medical providers,’ Ihnen pleaded.

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers claimed there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisted that the Department of Correction has already preserved the evidence from Pike’s attempted execution.

He added that log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.

‘It’s my understanding that the IV lines were cut, and so there may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Ms Pike when she was transported to the hospital,’ Ayers said.

Pike’s aunt, Carrie Ross, told the Daily Mail that her niece’s shocking botched execution has taken a tremendous toll.

‘It’s been up, down, up, down. I have cried more tears in the last week than I’ve cried in my whole life,’ Ross said.

The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.

‘I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,’ the killer said in her ‘last’ words. She described herself as at peace.

About five minutes later, she raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard breathing heavily until media were escorted from the witness room nearly 90 minutes into the execution. An ambulance then rushed Pike to a hospital.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.

Pike’s attorneys wrote in a court filing that ‘apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.’

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.

Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt.

Shipp then carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. He was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

It’s unclear how state officials will proceed with her case. Pike’s attorneys have argued she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Pike’s lawyers and the Tennessee Board of Parole for comment.

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