Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is in “critical condition, receiving life-saving care” at hospital after surviving two lethal injection attempts, leading the state’s governor to halt all executions for the rest of the year.
“We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment,” her lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters on Thursday. “But we do know that she is alive right now.”
Her lawyers are now asking for her sentence to be commuted. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
She was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive, her lawyers said. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Lawyers describe repeated attempts to establish IV line
Details have continued to emerge about what happened during the failed Christa Pike execution.
“Last night, the execution team attempted to establish an IV line for an hour,” Spivey said.
“I counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt.”
One media witness reported that Pike had complained about the pain of the injections, saying: “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.”
Another witness, the Nashville Banner’s reporter Steven Hale, told the BBC: “None of us had seen anything like that. It was definitely a disaster by pretty much any way of looking at it.”
Hale told Radio 4’s Today programme: “To be blunt, she didn’t seem to be dying. She just seemed to be in this in-between state, and stayed that way for quite a long time, much longer than would have been normal.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, reacted to the failed execution attempt by saying: “It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer.
Her attempted execution on Wednesday was the subject of a last-minute legal battle, which culminated in the US Supreme Court allowing the lethal injections to proceed.
Slemmer’s mother May Martinez, who was among those who wanted the execution to take place and travelled to Tennessee to witness it, told NBC News afterwards that “it was a mess”.
Shipp was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole and remains in prison.
He was spared the death penalty for his part in the attack because he was not yet legally an adult at the time.
Lawyers say observers were left in the dark
In their account of Wednesday’s events, Pike’s lawyers described a scene shrouded in secrecy.
Spivey said observers were kept in a dark room behind a closed curtain after the second lethal dose had been administered and “it was clear that Miss Pike was still breathing” minutes later.
“No-one knew what was going on behind that curtain,” Spivey said. “I had no idea when and if medical professionals began to assist.”
Spivey said Tennessee’s governor must now commute Pike’s sentence, a request that was previously denied.
Stephen Ferrell, another of Pike’s lawyers, said they were also considering other legal options.
“We want to think this through and we want to make sure that Christa recovers and has some input in what she wants,” he said.
Tennessee governor orders independent review
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review and said on Thursday that the investigation into the Christa Pike execution “will be thorough”, adding that “it’s going to take time”.
“There are a lot of questions,” Lee said. “The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered, and that’s what this investigation is for.”
Lee has not made clear who will conduct the independent review of the state’s execution procedures.
His decision to pause all executions for the remainder of the year will affect the planned 3 December execution of convicted murderer Gary Sutton.
The Tennessee Department of Correction, which handled the execution, defended its actions.
It said it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general’s office”.
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.”
Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital, in accordance with state protocol when the first attempt fails, but was still alive afterwards, according to court filings by her lawyers.
Her lawyers argued that the execution was causing Pike “unnecessary agony” and violating her right to be executed “free of cruel and unusual punishment”.
The Tennessee attorney general’s office said it agreed with the decision to investigate, adding: “We need to know what happened.”
Calls for different approaches to capital punishment
US Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for Tennessee governor, described the situation as “tragic”.
“While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair,” Blackburn said.
Democrat Jerri Green, Blackburn’s opponent, criticised her for wanting to “bring back one of the most cruel forms of capital punishment”.
“As governor, I would put a moratorium on all future executions,” Green said on X.
This is the second time in 2026 that Tennessee officials have attempted and failed to execute a prisoner.
In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after staff were unable to find a vein to administer a lethal drug. Carruthers was given a year’s reprieve.
Source: BBC
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