WASHINGTON: Convicted murderer Christa Pike, who survived a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee last week, has been discharged from hospital and returned to prison, her lawyers said on Saturday.

Pike, 50, was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital on Sept 30 — a usually fatal dose that nevertheless failed to kill her. She was transported to hospital in critical condition but later regained consciousness, with her lawyers saying this week that she was walking around but in a “foggy” mental state.

Pike is the only inmate to ever survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC). “Christa Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre where she has been housed for more than 30 years,” her lawyers said in a statement.

“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,” the statement went on. Pike “is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,” the lawyers said.

Pike was sentenced to death in Tennessee after she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder. The attempted execution came after days of legal wrangling that ultimately reached the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2026