Christa Pike Discharged From Hospital After Surviving Execution Attempt
New York Times · LC · trust 52/100
Ms. Pike, 50 and convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate, survived two doses of the drug pentobarbital late last month.
Listen · 4:17 min Share full article Christa Pike survived an execution attempt and has now been discharged from the hospital. Credit... J. Miles Cary/USA TODAY, via Reuters By Emily Cochrane
She is back at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, the primary prison for women in Tennessee, her lawyers said. As of Thursday, Ms. Pike had been walking with assistance, but still struggling with concentration and memory .
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” her lawyers said in a statement. “She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”
Ms. Pike has spent three decades in the prison, largely in isolation , for the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a classmate in Knoxville. On Sept. 30, she survived two doses of the drug pentobarbital, the second time this year Tennessee has failed to carry out an execution.
Ms. Pike is the first person to have survived receiving doses of a drug during a lethal injection execution.
Her survival has gripped the nation and become a flashpoint in the debate over the death penalty at a moment when support for the capital punishment is at its lowest in decades, according to a 2025 Gallup poll . Conservative leaders, however, have continued to champion the practice, including in Tennessee.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Read the original at New York Times →
Open in TruthVane →