Christa Pike Returns to Prison After Hospitalization Following Botched Execution

Inmate Christa Pike was released from a local hospital on Saturday and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a statement. The legal team, including Luke Ihnen, Randy Spivey, Stephen Ferrell and Kelly Gleason, noted that Pike expressed gratitude toward first responders and the medical staff who treated her.

"She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances," the attorneys said.

The attorneys added that Pike will continue to receive medical treatment at the prison and that they are monitoring her recovery.

Pike had been hospitalized for several days after a failed execution attempt last month, during which she was given two doses of the sedative pentobarbital. According to earlier reports, Pike reported a burning sensation in her arm after the first dose and requested a higher placement of the IV. After a second dose, she became unconscious but continued breathing and made choking sounds, according to her attorney Randy Spivey, who witnessed the attempt.

Judge I'Ashea Myles of the Davidson County Chancery Court ordered prison officials to preserve all evidence related to the execution attempt. Pike is serving a death-row sentence for a 1995 murder committed when she was 18, in which she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, killed classmate Colleen Slemmer. Shipp received a life sentence without parole.