Crime & Justice
Christa Pike returns to prison after surviving botched execution in Tennessee
October 11, 2026 at 08:57 AM · Updated 5d ago
Coverage
3 reports · 2 in Arabic, 1 in English · over 11 hours
BABBC Arabic
كريستا بايك: خروج القاتلة الأمريكية من المستشفى بعد 10 أيام من محاولة إعدام فاشلة
(opens the publisher’s site)
يواليوم السابع
كريستا بايك تعود إلى السجن بعد نجاتها من الإعدام بالحقنة القاتلة
(opens the publisher’s site)
TGThe Guardian
Capital punishment is surging in the US – but after Christa Pike’s botched execution, what is its future?
(opens the publisher’s site)Christa Pike, the first person to survive a lethal injection execution, has returned to a Nashville women's prison after regaining consciousness following a botched procedure.
- Pike, 50, sentenced to death in 1995 for murdering classmate Colleen Slemmer, returned Saturday to the Nashville prison where she has been held for 30 years.
- Two doses of pentobarbital failed to enter her bloodstream during the September 30 execution, leaving her unconscious for six days before she regained consciousness.
- The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike, who can now talk and walk with assistance, is the first person to survive a full lethal injection execution.
- Her lawyer Randy Spivey said the failed execution "is not something that should ever happen again. It was done in all of our names."
- Pike's lawyers renewed their appeal for her death sentence to be commuted to life in prison.
- A judge ordered Tennessee's corrections department to preserve evidence related to the botched execution.