Anesthesiologist who advised Christa Pike’s defense speaks out against lethal injection
Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot joins Bill Hemmer to discuss the legal fallout after a judge ordered Tennessee officials to preserve evidence from the botched execution of Christa Pike. Zivot, who advised Pike’s attorneys, explains the complications surrounding the lethal injection drugs used in the state’s attempt. Pike remains on death row following the failed execution attempt.
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Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison after surviving a botched lethal injection that left her with serious medical complications, her attorneys announced.
Pike, who survived two doses of the execution drug pentobarbital on Sept. 30, is back at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been housed for more than 30 years, according to a joint statement from her legal team.
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
CHRISTA PIKE NOW CONSCIOUS AND TALKING AFTER SURVIVING 2 DOSES OF LETHAL INJECTION DRUG
Christa Gail Pike appears remotely from Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation for her hearing in Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tenn., on Aug. 11, 2026. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
The statement was issued by attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender.
The attorneys did not disclose when Pike was discharged or whether she has recovered from complications they previously described, including pneumonia, a blood clot and injuries to her arms.
Ferrell told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday that Pike had begun walking around her hospital room but continued to struggle with injuries to her arms and memory problems.
CHRISTA PIKE’S ATTORNEY SAYS SHE’S ‘UP AND WALKING’ MORE THAN A WEEK AFTER BOTCHED EXECUTION
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 30, 2026. Pike had not been declared dead when witnesses were asked to leave the room they were in. (Denny Simmons/The Tennessean/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“What’s been described to me is that physically there’s quite a bit going on, that her arms are very injured and she’s not able to use them very much,” Ferrell said. “She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far.”
Pike’s recovery comes after her attorneys said they believed she was brain dead Monday evening before she unexpectedly regained consciousness the following morning.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.
LETHAL INJECTION SURVIVOR CHRISTA PIKE’S FORMER SATANIST BOYFRIEND COULD BE RELEASED IN 5 YEARS
Christa Gail Pike is seen during her trial for the murder of Colleen A. Slemmer March 18, 1996, in Knox County Criminal Court. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
The failed execution has prompted legal action, with a Tennessee judge ordering the state Department of Correction to preserve physical and electronic evidence related to the execution attempt.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has halted executions for the remainder of 2026. It remains unclear whether or when the state will seek to carry out Pike’s death sentence.
Fox News Digital’s Mike Ruiz contributed to this report.