Christa Pike, 50, survived two lethal injections and was hospitalized after Tennessee’s first attempted execution of a woman in nearly two decades collapsed into a medical crisis.
Her legal team said the execution “failed” and demanded “immediate medical care” after she continued breathing and maintained a heartbeat following the second dose. Pike was transported by ambulance from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to an off-site hospital, where she remains under treatment while still formally under sentence of death.
Governor Bill Lee, 64, has suspended all other scheduled executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year. He ordered what his office called “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” during the botched procedure Wednesday evening.
The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its actions in a statement, insisting officials “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.” The agency noted the lethal injection chemical “has consistently been effective” in previous executions. They added: “The protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
Pike is the first person known to have received two full doses of lethal injection drugs and survived, leaving the state with no established protocol for what happens next.
Her lawyers are expected to challenge any attempt to set a second execution date on Eighth Amendment grounds, arguing that a second attempt would constitute “cruel and unusual punishments.” The Tennessee Supreme Court retains authority to set a new date when an execution passes without the sentence being carried out, setting up what legal observers predict will be prolonged court battles.
The case carries echoes of Willie Francis, a Louisiana man who in 1945 survived a botched electrocution because a prison guard had set up the chair while drunk. Francis’s appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court but was dismissed, and he was executed one year and six days later at age 18 after persuading his lawyer to abandon further challenges.
Earlier this year, Tennessee death row inmate Tony Carruthers had his execution called off when medical staff could not locate a suitable second vein for a backup IV line required by protocol. His execution was officially postponed for one year.
May Martinez, mother of Pike’s murder victim Colleen Slemmer, reacted to the failure with fury, stating that those responsible for carrying out the death penalty “f—-d up.”
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture murder of Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student in Knoxville. Then 18, Pike and an accomplice lured the 19-year-old victim to a remote spot, where they beat her with a asphalt chunk and a box cutter over approximately 30 minutes before Pike carved a pentagram into her chest. She was arrested after showing a piece of Slemmer’s skull to classmates.
For now, no executions will proceed in Tennessee while the third-party review investigates how two administered doses of lethal chemicals failed to kill Pike. Her legal representatives will continue appeals while the Tennessee Supreme Court decides whether to authorize a second attempt.