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Christa Pike breaks silence as death row inmate is released from hospital
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Christa Pike has been released from hospital following two failed attempts to execute her using the lethal injection.
Pike, now 50, was due to be executed on September 30 after spending 30 years on death row for a murder she committed as a teenager.
However, officials struggled to place an IV line in her arm ahead of the execution, with witnesses claiming at least seven needles had been used, one of which allegedly came out of her arm bent.
Pike remained alive after the second dose of pentobarbital was administered, with witnesses saying she was heard snoring before she was rushed to hospital.
She remained unconscious for several days after the botched execution attempt, before coming round.
Pike was able to speak and even stand up in the days following, and has now been discharged from hospital.
Her legal team confirmed she had been returned to Tennessee's Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre, the prison where she has spent over 30 years on death row.
The statement, shared by Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the TN Office of the Post Conviction Defender, said: "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.
"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."
Pike was sentenced to death after she admitted to killing her Job Corps classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 after fearing that she was interested in her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, 17.
Pike, who was 18 at the time, lured Slemmer to a secluded location where she and Shipp tortured and beat her, before she was killed after a large piece of asphalt was dropped on her head.
Shipp carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest, while Pike took a piece of Slemmer's skull as a trophy, which she later showed off around the school.
Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp - who was under 18 at the time of the crime - was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Another friend, Shadolla Peterson, who acted as a lookout, received six years of probation.
After 30 years on death row, Pike's execution was attempted on September 30, after she and her lawyers had mounted several unsuccessful appeals on the basis that the lethal injection could cause undue suffering for her.
Her legal team revealed that after surviving the execution attempt, Pike is facing "cognitive challenges" and "profound psychological trauma".
They said in a statement, per the New York Post: "While her physical recovery has been remarkable, significant questions remain about the long-term effects of what she endured.
"Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die.
"Christa also continues to experience cognitive challenges with concentration and memory."
Currently, the long-term effects on her health are unknown, as well as whether the state will commute her sentence to life in prison - which she and her legal team have campaigned for - or if they will push for another execution.
As it stands, all upcoming executions in Tennessee have been put on hold and an investigation has been opened into why Pike's execution went so drastically wrong.