Pike survived two doses of the deadly drug on September 30, putting the death penalty under renewed scrutiny.
Published October 10, 2026
Krista Pike survived a U.S. state’s execution by lethal injection and has been released from the hospital and returned to a women’s prison in Tennessee, her lawyer announced Saturday.
The 50-year-old has returned to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she was confined for 30 years. She had been hospitalized since September 30, when authorities administered two doses of pentobarbital in an attempt to execute her.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Pike was sentenced to death in 1995 for punching and stabbing his classmate Colleen Slemer.
Her lawyer said she continues to receive treatment in prison and will monitor her recovery. They also expressed their gratitude to the first responders and medical team who treated her.
The botched execution has put the death penalty in the United States in the spotlight as another controversy unfolds over the military’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hassan. A former Army psychiatrist was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. His execution is scheduled for December 3rd.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement Thursday about the livestream also drew criticism from some death penalty supporters. Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday questioned whether that would happen, saying he would not wait to see it happen. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the proposal “beyond disgusting” in a social media post.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also denounced the plan as a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”
But in Tennessee, Pike’s failed execution has not prompted Republican lawmakers to reconsider capital punishment. Instead, some argue for alternatives such as the electric chair or firing squad.
Support for the death penalty in the United States has declined since its peak in the 1990s. Since Pike was sentenced in 1996, 10 states have abolished the death penalty, but executions continue across the United States.
Thirty people have been executed in the United States this year, and eight more are scheduled to be executed, primarily in Texas and Florida.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in July found that about two-thirds of American adults believe the death penalty for people convicted of murder is morally justified. However, about six in 10 said it did not deter crime, and about seven in 10 said there was a risk of innocent people being executed.
