NASHVILLE, United States- Convicted killer Christa Pike is alive and receiving life-saving medical care after Tennessee officials failed to execute her by lethal injection on Wednesday night, her attorneys said.
Pike, 50, was taken to a hospital after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, Tennessee’s execution drug.
Her lawyers said she remained in critical condition on Thursday and that they did not know her prognosis.
“Christa is alive right now,” attorney Randy Spivey says, adding that Pike is receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital.
The failed procedure has prompted Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to suspend executions scheduled for the rest of the year and order an independent review.
It is the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to carry out an execution.
Two doses were administered
Pike’s attorneys said prison officials injected her twice, but she remained alive.
Lawyer Randall Spivey said the execution team spent about an hour trying to establish intravenous access.
He said Pike was cooperative and attempted to help them locate suitable veins.
According to her lawyers, Pike complained of pain in her arm after the injections.
They said her arm discoloured and the skin blistered at the injection sites. The accounts have not been independently confirmed by prison officials.
Tennessee’s Department of Correction said the state followed its approved execution protocol.
Officials have not publicly explained why the lethal injection failed.
The state uses pentobarbital, a barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system. Tennessee adopted the single-drug protocol in 2024.
Execution procedures have faced wider scrutiny as pharmaceutical companies restrict the sale of drugs for executions and states rely on less transparent supply arrangements.
Execution went ahead after court intervention
Pike’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday evening at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
An appeals court halted it about an hour before it was due to begin, but the US Supreme Court later overturned that stay, allowing the procedure to proceed.
Pike’s lawyers had challenged the state’s execution method, citing her blood condition and concerns about access to her veins.
They sought an alternative method, but their request was unsuccessful.
Governor Lee also rejected her clemency appeal on Monday, which sought to have her sentence changed to life in prison.
Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Tennessee orders review
After the attempt failed, Lee called the episode a tragedy and ordered a third-party review to establish what happened.
He also suspended all remaining scheduled executions in the state through the end of 2026.
The review comes amid growing scrutiny of execution procedures in the United States.
A separate execution attempt in Tennessee was aborted in May after officials could not establish an IV line.
That case involved a different prisoner and did not proceed to the administration of the execution drug.
Pike was sentenced for 1995 killing
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps.
Pike was 18 at the time. She and two other teenagers were involved in the killing, and Pike was convicted of first-degree murder.
The case has drawn renewed attention because of Pike’s age at the time of the crime, her long time on death row and the unusual outcome of Wednesday’s execution attempt.
Her attorneys have called for her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
