NASHVILLE — Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike survived an attempted execution on Wednesday evening after receiving two lethal injections of pentobarbital and was later given “life-saving measures” in hospital, her lawyers and the Associated Press reported.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for the lethal injections after last-minute litigation. At Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, media witnesses said the curtain in the witness room was closed twice; reporters were later asked to leave, the AP said. Tennessee’s protocol provides a secondary set of syringes if the first does not kill, but does not spell out what happens if the prisoner remains alive after the second set.
One of Pike’s attorneys told the BBC she had lost consciousness yet still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring during the attempt. Gov. Bill Lee said he ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review” and that the state’s last remaining scheduled execution of 2026 would not go ahead as planned. The attempted execution was not Tennessee’s first 2026 disruption: Tony Carruthers’s lethal injection was postponed in May after staff could not find a usable vein.
Sources: BBC News, Associated Press
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