Christa Pike returns to Tennessee prison after botched execution
What's next: Tennessee has halted executions for the rest of the year as lawyers push to commute Pike's sentence to life without parole.
Christa Pike has been discharged from a hospital and returned to a Tennessee prison days after surviving a lethal injection that used two doses of pentobarbital. Her lawyers said Pike, 50, is now back at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she had been held for more than 30 years, and is still receiving medical care. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee suspended executions for the rest of the year and ordered an independent investigation into why the Sept. 30 execution failed. Pike's legal team has urged Lee to commute her death sentence to life without parole, while a state lawyer told a court that any new execution date would be up to the Tennessee Supreme Court. A judge also ordered officials to preserve evidence tied to the failed execution.