NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Diya TV) — Christa Pike remained in critical condition Thursday after Tennessee failed to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers said. Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review and postponed the state’s remaining scheduled execution.
Pike’s attorneys said she was receiving lifesaving hospital care after surviving the initial and backup doses of pentobarbital Wednesday night. Attorney Randy Spivey said they did not know her prognosis.
Pike received a death sentence for killing Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995. She was 18 at the time of the murder and is Tennessee’s only woman on death row.
Media witnesses described Pike complaining of pain, moving repeatedly and continuing to breathe during the execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
WKRN reporter Tori Gessner said Pike complained that her arm felt as though it would burst open. Witnesses said officials closed the chamber curtain twice, preventing them from seeing parts of the procedure. They could still hear breathing and snoring before officials escorted them out.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said staff followed every step of the approved execution protocol. It said the protocol did not authorize additional procedures beyond those workers performed and confirmed that officials transported Pike to an outside medical facility.
Lee called the incident “deeply disturbing” and ordered a comprehensive third-party review. He also postponed the other execution Tennessee had scheduled for this year.
The attempt followed last-minute court proceedings. A federal appeals court temporarily halted the execution to consider Pike’s claims that courts had inadequately addressed her childhood abuse. The U.S. Supreme Court lifted that stay Wednesday evening over the dissent of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Tennessee also halted Tony Carruthers’ execution in May after workers could not establish the required backup IV access. Unlike Pike’s case, officials did not administer the lethal drugs.
