Christa Pike, who survived an execution attempt in Tennessee 10 days ago, has been discharged from the hospital and moved to a rehabilitation center, according to her attorneys and the Tennessee Department of Correction.
“Christa Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she has been housed for more than 30 years,” a statement from Pike’s attorneys said. “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 Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed the move and said no further information was available.
Tennessee officials attempted to execute Pike, 50, on Sept. 30.
Representatives of the media who were in the death chamber in a Nashville prison said Pike continued to talk, breathe and snore after she was given two doses of lethal injection drugs. The execution was halted by the state, and Pike received emergency care and was transported to a hospital.
Pike’s attorneys said she was on a ventilator and unconscious the day after the execution attempt, and that she arrived at the hospital with swelling, burns and blisters on her arms. On Tuesday, her attorneys had said she was conscious and speaking.
The historic failure by state officials raised questions about Tennessee’s execution protocols and led to the resignation of the state’s prison chief. Gov. Bill Lee (R) earlier said he was halting all scheduled executions for the rest of 2026 and ordering a third-party review of the botched execution.
A jury sentenced Pike to death decades ago for her role in a 1995 killing she helped carry out when she was 18 alongside two other teens. Pike was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder in a 2001 assault on another inmate while she was incarcerated. Her case drew global attention because she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike’s attorneys previously challenged the state’s lethal injection protocol, citing Tennessee’s botched lethal injection of another inmate at the same Nashville prison.
Her lawyers said she faced related risks because of a blood disorder and that her small veins would create a heightened risk of complications during lethal injection, as well as the possibility of extreme pain and bleeding. They requested the state consider alternative methods of execution, namely a firing squad or hanging.
Pike is the first person to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that monitors capital punishment.
Katie Mettler and Brady Dennis contributed to this report.
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