Just In: Christa Pike Released From Hospital Following Botched Execution Attempt

(Tennessee Department of Correction via AP/Fox News/CNN)

The convicted killer who survived a botched execution attempt in Tennessee has been released from the hospital.

Attorneys for Christa Pike released as statement Saturday saying she was discharged from the hospital after the Sept. 30 attempt to execute the Tennessee prisoner went horribly wrong.

“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,” her attorneys said in a statement released Saturday.

Pike is now Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she has spent the last 30 years.

Pike was 18 when she and two other teens, including her 17-year-old boyfriend, tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, carving a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest as they crushed her skull.

Pike, a child rape victim who grew up in an abusive environment, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and subsequently sentenced to death row, the youngest woman to be sentenced to death row.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had traveled to Nashville to witness the now-50-year-old Pike’s execution.

The inmate became the first person to survive after being given two doses of pentobarbital, according to the Associate Press, which cited the Death Penalty Information Center.

Pike’s first words after waking up following the failed execution attempt were, “Where am I” and “Who are you?” her attorneys have said.

She “was aware of the state’s execution attempt and was angry,” according to one of her attorneys, Randy Spivey, the Times reported. The attorney also said Pike had “a lot of cognitive confusion.”

Pike’s case has sparked nationwide headlines as the public debates her case.

The View’s Ana Navarro chimed in on the debate Friday, calling for people to put Slemmer’s family first.

“It feels like all of a sudden the woman who tortured the 18-year-old and killed the 18-year-old girl has now become the victim.

“I am outraged at the state that couldn’t get this one thing right after 31 years, that has made this family that has suffered so much…the worst loss that you could possibly suffer, has waited for over three decades, and now have to go through this and see the assassin, the convicted killer, treated as if she was the victim in this case,” she said.

“So I’m with you. I think the victim’s family needs to lead.”

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