Tennessee pauses execution after Christa Pike is taken to hospital
Pike’s lawyer said her heart was still beating after two pentobarbital injections. Tennessee’s Department of Correction said staff followed the approved protocol.
Christa Pike was taken to an off-site hospital after an attempted lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Her lawyer said Pike’s heart was still beating after two doses of pentobarbital and that she was receiving life-saving measures.
Pike’s legal team sought emergency medical care and a stay of execution while the procedure was under way. A judge’s ruling noted that medical personnel had begun providing care.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol, approved by the Attorney General’s Office. The department said the protocol did not permit additional procedures beyond those carried out.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her execution proceeded after the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court stay that had allowed further consideration of whether jurors had adequately considered evidence of her childhood sexual abuse.
The available account does not establish that the execution was completed or report Pike’s condition after her transfer to hospital.
