Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived two syringes of pentobarbital at Riverbend, forcing a halt, hospital transfer, and a governor-ordered freeze on the state’s remaining execution this year.
About 8:00 p.m. local time Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the state tried to carry out the death sentence of 50-year-old Christa Pike with two lethal injections of pentobarbital. The attempt failed. Pike was moved to an off-site medical facility and given life-saving care, Breitbart reported.
She had been set to become the first woman Tennessee executed in more than 200 years. Instead, the state left a convicted murderer alive, a victim’s family without final justice, and the governor shutting down the last scheduled execution of the year.
Pike’s legal team filed an emergency motion while the procedure was underway. The filing stated that she had lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat, and was audibly snoring.
"Ms. Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring."
One of her attorneys later told the BBC she was “being provided life-saving measures.” Emergency vehicles arrived at the prison after the halt.
Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter told the Tennessean the agency stood by its conduct. She said the department followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.
"The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,"
Carter added that the lethal injection chemical in the protocol “has consistently been effective,” and that the protocol “does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.” She confirmed Pike had been transported to an off-site medical facility.
Officials did not explain why two syringes of pentobarbital failed to end the execution. That gap is now the subject of a formal review.
In the hours after the failed attempt, Gov. Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive, third-party review “to determine exactly what occurred.” He also said the one remaining execution planned for the rest of the year would not go ahead.
That decision closes Tennessee’s death chamber for the calendar year after two public failures. The Associated Press noted this was the second time this year the state could not complete an execution.
In May, officials called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers after executioners tried for more than an hour and failed to place an IV line to deliver pentobarbital. Carruthers was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994. Two different breakdowns. Same result: no sentence carried out.
Pike was 18 when she murdered classmate Colleen Slemmer. She is now 50. Decades passed between the crime and Wednesday night’s attempt. The state finally moved to enforce the judgment, then could not finish the job under its own approved protocol.
Capital punishment exists to deliver a final, lawful penalty in the worst cases. When the process collapses at the moment of injection, the victim’s family gets another delay, the inmate gets emergency medicine, and the public gets another year without the sentence the courts already ordered.
Lee’s review will examine what went wrong with the drugs, the procedure, and the limits written into the protocol. Carter’s statement makes one point plain: officials say they did only what the approved rules allowed, and those rules did not permit further steps once the two syringes were given.
That leaves a hard fact on the table. Tennessee prepared to execute a convicted murderer, administered two doses of the designated chemical, watched the inmate survive with a heartbeat and audible snoring, and then raced her to a hospital. The governor has now stopped the last remaining execution on the year’s calendar while outsiders dig into the failure.
Justice delayed by appeals is one burden. Justice stopped by a protocol that cannot complete a lawful sentence is another. Tennessee owes Colleen Slemmer’s memory a system that can carry out the judgment it already handed down, without a second collapse in the same year.
