Death row inmate Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital and returned to prison after surviving a botched execution attempt in Tennessee, her lawyers said.
Pike, 50, is back at the Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been held for more than 30 years. She will continue receiving medical care at the facility, according to a joint statement from her legal teams.
She was taken to a Nashville hospital after two injections failed to kill her in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on September 30. She had been unconscious and critically ill, with severe injuries to her arms.
Her lawyers said earlier this week that Pike woke in hospital “angry and confused” and faced a long recovery. They had previously feared she might be brain-dead.
A Tennessee judge has ordered state officials to preserve all evidence connected to the failed execution. One of Pike’s lawyers described the order as the “first of many steps to preserve and enforce her constitutional rights”.
Pike was sentenced to death for a murder committed in 1995. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for the rest of the year while officials investigate her case and a similar failure involving Tony Carruthers in May, when prison staff were unable to establish intravenous lines.
