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Christa Pike update: Where is she now after hospital discharge?
Christa Pike, who survived a failed lethal injection in Tennessee, has left the hospital and is back in the prison.
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Christa Pike has been discharged from the hospital, according to a statement from her lawyers released on Saturday. She survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital during Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection on September 30.
In their statement, her lawyers said: “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,”
As per the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the United States.
Where is she now?
Pike is back at the Deborah K Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. It is the women’s prison where she has been held for more than 30 years, as per her attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Luke Ihnen, Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason.
"Christa Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she has been housed for more than 30 years," her attorneys said.
Her lawyers said she is still getting medical care at the prison.
As per her legal team, Pike’s recovery in hospital happened step by step. On Tuesday, her lawyers said she had regained consciousness and was speaking from her hospital bed. On Wednesday, according to her team, she began “taking limited steps” with help. On Thursday, her attorneys said in a statement that she was walking “with some assistance” and that her arms were “healing and regaining movement and strength.” They also said her “lungs are clear, and she has started to eat a regular diet,” per CBS News.
What happens next?
Nobody knows yet. According to the BBC, her case is now in “uncharted territory”.
At a court hearing on Wednesday, Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers told the judge he does not know if the state will set a new execution date, as per CBS.
Also read: Christa Pike's failed execution triggers shake-up as Tennessee prisons chief resigns
The judge also told Tennessee to keep all evidence linked to the failed execution. This evidence could help in a future lawsuit against the state.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent investigation. He has also stopped all executions for the rest of the year.
Pike’s lawyers want her death sentence changed to life in prison without parole. Lee has the power to do this, but he has not said what the state will do.
Pike was convicted in 1995 of killing her classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19. Pike was 18 at the time. She attacked Slemmer with a meat cleaver and a box cutter for up to an hour in a wooded part of the University of Tennessee campus. Her boyfriend and a friend helped her.
