Christa Pike: Death row inmate discharged from hospital days after waking up from botched execution attempt

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital and sent back to prison days after she woke up from a failed execution attempt.

Pike, 50, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, was administered two does of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution’s death chamber on September 30.

But in an unexpected twist, Pike survived the execution attempt and was rushed to a hospital in Nashville where she received critical medical care and doctors worked to remove the drug from her system.

Almost a week after receiving life-saving treatment, Pike regained consciousness and began speaking from her hospital bed.

In another major development, Pike’s lawyers said she had been released from hospital and transferred back to Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center on Saturday.

“She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,” Pike’s attorneys said.

In a previous statement addressing Pike’s condition after she woke up in hospital, her lawyer’s said she sustained “severe damage” to her arms and her prognosis remained uncertain.

“Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” Pike’s attorneys said.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and tortured Slemmer before killing her after the three met at a job-training programme for troubled teenagers.

Grisly details of the botched execution later emerged from witnesses who reported that Pike fell asleep and began “snoring loudly” before her legal team were granted an emergency motion to cease any further attempts at ending her life.

Medical reports revealed Pike’s arm was left “swollen, burned and blistered” after seven needles were used to administer the drug.

The major development in Pike’s condition comes after Stephen Farrell, one of her lawyers, previously said it was too early to know the extent of her recovery or whether she would suffer lasting effects.

“I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is, as in, the long-term prognosis. If she recovers, she may not fully recover,” Mr Ferrell told CNN.

“And there may be issues about her competence. We just don’t know any of this.”

The failed execution has prompted further scrutiny of Tennessee’s death penalty procedures, with Governor Bill Lee suspending executions in the State for the remainder of the year.

Just days later, Mr Lee announced the head of Tennessee’s prison system, Frank Strada, would step down from his role in October.