Christa Pike remains alive in critical condition after failed execution, attorneys say
Officials halted Tennessee’s remaining 2026 execution after two doses of pentobarbital failed, and Gov. Bill Lee ordered a review of the procedure.
- Death row inmate Christa Pike survived a failed execution Wednesday in Tennessee after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital; she remained breathing and was transported by ambulance from the prison.
- This incident marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, following Tony Carruthers' failed lethal injection in May when officials could not secure a backup IV line required by protocol.
- Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, defines botched executions as involving unanticipated problems causing unnecessary suffering. The Death Penalty Information Center tracks such incidents since 1982.
- The Death Penalty Information Center lists 64 executions or attempted executions since 1982, with 51 involving lethal injection. Sarat identifies this method as having the highest rate of botched attempts among all execution methods.
- Sarat found 276 botched executions out of 8,776 cases examined between 1890 and 2010, yet no previous instance matched Pike's circumstances of surviving two lethal doses—making her case historically unprecedented.
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Svenska Dagbladet
corren.seSeven needles in the left arm. And the right arm turned purple from the sting during the attempted execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, her lawyers say. Despite that, the 50-year-old survived. – The governor must now commute Christa Pike's sentence, says lawyer Randall Spivey.
The state tried to execute it by lethal injection, but neither the initial dose nor the pentobarbital backup dose killed her and she could still be heard snoring.
Christa Pike, sentenced to death for murder, is in critical condition in hospital after a failed execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee on Wednesday, her lawyer Randy Spivey announced on Thursday, appealing for a commutation of her client's sentence.
Twice Christa Pike is given a deadly drug – but she does not die. Tennessee stops further executions for the time being.
After the failed execution of a convicted murderer in the US state of Tennessee, there is growing criticism of the authorities. A spokesperson for the non-profit "Death Penalty Information Center" said that the incident was the worst thing you've ever seen.
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