BREAKING: Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike survived a lethal injection attempt in the state on Wednesday, remaining alive after receiving two doses of pentobarbital. Governor Bill Lee subsequently halted the one execution still scheduled for the remainder of 2026 and ordered a third-party review of what happened.
What happened
Pike, 50, was convicted of the 1995 murder of Patricia Jones and was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. She was the only woman on the state’s death row.
The execution had been repeatedly delayed. The Tennessee Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay, but later on the same day the US Supreme Court cleared the way for it to go ahead. The warrant was due to expire at midnight.
Her lawyers said she had not lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. They said the curtains to the death chamber had gone down twice, and filed an emergency motion seeking immediate medical care. They also said she was kicking her feet so heavily that she knocked off the sheets laid over her. The curtains dropped again and, by 8.26pm, the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered.
Journalists in the room described snoring, loud exhales, gasps and complaints about pain, according to NBC News. Lawyers said late on Wednesday that she had been taken from the prison in an ambulance and was being treated at a hospital, but that they had not been told her condition.
What happens next
Lee said in a statement that he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the remaining scheduled execution would not take place this year.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” he said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that officials had “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office”. The state protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set — a gap that is now likely to come under scrutiny during the review.
Pike has not denied the killing. Her supporters argued the state should consider her age at the time of the offence, her mental health and a history of severe sexual abuse. Her co-defendant, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Whatever the review concludes, the outcome is without precedent. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said seven other people have survived execution attempts because crews failed to find a usable vein — but nobody is known to have stayed alive after actually receiving the drugs. Pike, as of the latest reports, did.
Reporting by The Associated Press, NBC News, Al Jazeera and The Tennessean.
We do not allow links of any sort in comments. No SPAM whatsoever. On topic comments only.