Tennessee execution attempt halted after two pentobarbital doses
Christa Pike remained alive after two injections and was taken to hospital. Her lawyers sought an emergency halt, while Tennessee said officials followed the state’s approved protocol.
Tennessee officials halted the attempted execution of Christa Pike after administering two doses of pentobarbital. Pike remained alive and was taken by ambulance to hospital, according to her lawyers, who said they had not been given details about her condition.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said staff had followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol. The protocol provides for a second set of syringes if an inmate is not deceased after the first, but does not specify what should happen if the person remains alive after the second.
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to halt the execution. They said she was in “unnecessary agony” and argued the attempt violated her right to be executed free from cruel and unusual punishment.
Media witnesses, as reported by France 24, said Pike remained awake after the first dose and asked whether her arm was supposed to feel as it did. Witnesses later reported hearing her snore after the second dose. The account does not establish why the injections failed or what followed the hospital transfer.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, committed when Pike was 18. The US Supreme Court overturned a last-minute appeals court stay, clearing the way for the attempt without explaining its decision. The appeals court had sought time to consider whether allegations of childhood sexual abuse were properly weighed at sentencing.
This was Tennessee’s second unsuccessful execution attempt this year. In May, officials called off the planned lethal injection of Tony Carruthers after they could not place an IV.
