Christa Pike has been released from hospital and is back in prison 10 days after her 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.”
Christa Pike appears remotely from Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation for her hearing in Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tenn., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Pike, 50, has been in hospital since she shockingly survived two doses of lethal injection pentobarbital on Sept. 30.
Following the botched execution, 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 believed 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:
Pike suffered from a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia and swelling after the bungled execution, her lawyers said earlier this week.
The death row inmate was sentenced after she murdered, tortured and mutilated her 19-year-old high school classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995.
Pike’s lawyers have pleaded with Republican Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence, claiming their client has “endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”