Christa Pike Is Back in Prison After Surviving Tennessee’s Lethal Injection Attempt
Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee’s Sept. 30, 2026, execution attempt, has left the hospital and is back at the women’s prison, her lawyers said.
Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, has been discharged from a hospital and returned to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she has been held for about 30 years, her lawyers said in a statement released on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026.
“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 statement said, according to Scripps News and Fox News.
The lawyers did not say when she was discharged or whether she has recovered from the complications they described earlier, Fox News reported.
What happened
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital when the state tried to execute her on Sept. 30, 2026, for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, and had been in a hospital since then.
After the failed execution, a Tennessee judge ordered the state Department of Correction to preserve physical and electronic evidence from the attempt, and Gov. Bill Lee halted executions for the rest of 2026. It is not clear whether the state will try again to carry out her death sentence.
Read our earlier reports on the execution date and on what happened after the attempt.
