Christa Pike survives botched execution in Tennessee, left unresponsive in hospital

Death row inmate Christa Pike remains unresponsive after two lethal injection doses failed to kill her at a Nashville prison. Tennessee's governor has ordered a third-party review.

Botched execution leaves death row inmate in hospital after two doses of pentobarbital fail

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, 50, is receiving emergency medical care in hospital after a lethal injection attempt failed on Wednesday evening, The Sun reports. Two full doses of the chemical pentobarbital were administered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at around 20:00 local time, yet Pike remained alive.

Her attorney filed an emergency motion during the execution itself, stating: "Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring." One of her lawyers subsequently told the BBC that Pike was "being provided life-saving measures" at an off-site medical facility.

Pike's attorney Randy Spivey confirmed she remained unresponsive but was not in a coma.

Two syringes, a closed curtain, and a review

The Associated Press reported that the curtain in the witness room was closed on two separate occasions during the procedure. Media present were at some point asked to leave. Tennessee's execution protocol provides for a secondary set of pentobarbital-filled syringes if the first set does not result in death, but it contains no guidance on what should happen if a person remains alive after the second set.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee issued a statement saying he had ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred." He also confirmed that the year's remaining scheduled execution would not go ahead as planned.

Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter told the Tennessean newspaper that officials had "followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office," adding that "the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective."

Legal team points to failed veins and degraded drug

District Judge Clifton L Corker issued a ruling acknowledging that "medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion."

Pike's legal team said in a statement: "Tonight the state of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution. We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy."

Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine who had been retained by Pike's legal team as a medical expert, told the BBC that she likely never reached a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause the cardiovascular failure required for death. "It's very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury," Zivot said.

Supreme Court overturned last-minute reprieve

The execution had been preceded by a series of emergency legal challenges. A lower court had granted a pause earlier on Wednesday, saying it needed more time to consider Pike's arguments. The US Supreme Court overturned that reprieve late the same evening. The Supreme Court had previously dismissed a separate appeal by Pike's lawyers, who had argued the jury was not given the opportunity to weigh mitigating evidence of Pike's documented history of childhood sexual abuse when it sentenced her to death in 1996.

The defence noted that for years Tennessee had argued in court that Pike fabricated the abuse — but at a recent hearing about her execution method, the state said it did not dispute that she had suffered sexual abuse and rape. Governor Lee denied a clemency request from Pike earlier this week. She is the only woman on the state's death row.

Murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995

Pike was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995 and sentenced to death in 1996. She was 18 at the time. Along with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, Pike beat, tortured and killed Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for troubled teens. Shipp was 17 and was therefore spared the death penalty.

The case drew intense media attention in Knoxville after Slemmer's body was discovered with an inverted pentagram — a symbol associated with satanic groups — carved into her chest. Pike has denied carving the symbol herself. Two other residents at the camp later testified that Pike had boasted about the killing and showed them a piece of Slemmer's skull.

In her clemency petition, Pike said she had intended to beat Slemmer, not kill her, but that she was unable to "put the brakes on." She wrote: "I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, was among those who wanted the execution to proceed. Following Wednesday's events she told NBC News: "It was a mess."

Not the first execution to go wrong in Tennessee this year

Wednesday's failed attempt was not the first troubled execution in Tennessee in 2026. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers — convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994 — was postponed after staff were unable to locate a vein through which to administer a lethal drug.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it stood by all actions taken during the attempted execution of Pike.

Source: The Sun