Christa Pike returns to prison after surviving Tennessee execution attempt
publishers 114articles 280first reported 1 Oct, 10:15 UTCdeveloping since 1 Oct · 18 editions
Christa Pike has been released from a Nashville hospital and returned to prison after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers said Saturday.
Pike, 50, received two doses of pentobarbital during the Sept. 30 procedure but remained alive and was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Her attorneys said she later regained consciousness and began speaking, walking with assistance and eating a regular diet. They said her injured arms were healing and regaining movement and strength, though one lawyer previously described her as mentally “foggy” and said the possibility of permanent damage remained unclear.
She was transferred back to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where her lawyers said she will continue receiving medical care. Pike had been held there before the execution attempt.
A Davidson County judge has ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence connected to the procedure, including IV equipment, drug containers, recordings and documentation. State attorneys sought to dismiss Pike’s legal challenge, arguing there was no showing that she would face another execution, but they did not rule out a new execution order.
Governor Bill Lee has paused executions in Tennessee pending an independent review. Pike’s lawyers are asking him to commute her sentence to life without parole.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Whether Tennessee will seek another execution date remains unresolved.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 7 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 218 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
- 280
- Given to the writer
- 8, 7 with the article's own text
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- 8
- This version written
- 218 h after the record first saw the story
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