Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, survived two lethal injections administered Wednesday evening and was taken to hospital where she is receiving life-saving measures, according to her legal team and authorities.
Pike was scheduled to be executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Penitentiary in Nashville. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution at the eleventh hour after a legal battle, overturning a federal appeals court decision that had halted the procedure one hour before the originally scheduled 10 a.m. execution time. The execution was rescheduled for 7 p.m.
During the execution, Pike's legal team filed an emergency motion to halt the procedure, stating that "Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring." One of her attorneys told the BBC that Pike was being provided life-saving measures in hospital after two syringes of pentobarbital had been administered.
Pentobarbital is a barbiturate used in most execution protocols across multiple U.S. states, including Tennessee. The drug is intended to induce unconsciousness, followed by paralysis and cardiac arrest, leading to death. An Associated Press journalist covering the procedure reported on the events as they unfolded.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The killing occurred in 1995 when both Pike and Slemmer were 18 years old. Pike carried out the attack alongside her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp.
The failed execution would have been the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The case had already been the subject of significant legal proceedings before Wednesday's events. The circumstances surrounding the failed execution have raised questions about what went wrong during the procedure and what will happen next.