US death row inmate survives execution attempt after two lethal injections

Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate, narrowly survived a failed execution attempt in Tennessee. On Wednesday evening, Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital, but she did not die. Her legal team had requested an emergency halt to the execution as she lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat, and was audibly snoring. Pike's lawyers claimed she was receiving life-saving measures in a hospital after the failed execution.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp beat, tortured, and killed. The murder occurred in 1995 at a job training camp for troubled teens. Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had wanted the execution to take place and expressed her disappointment at the failed attempt.

The execution took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville around 20:00 local time (01:00 GMT on Thursday). Tennessee's execution protocol allows for a secondary set of drug syringes if the subject does not die after the first set, but it does not specify what happens if the subject is still alive after the second set. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive review into what happened during the failed execution.

Pike's legal team has criticized the state's execution protocol, claiming issues such as difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, and the lack of emergency medical care when things went wrong. Pike's lawyers argued that the delayed beginning of resuscitation may have prevented her from achieving a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause apnoea and cardiovascular failure, potentially leading to brain injury.

The US Supreme Court had previously blocked two attempts to stop the execution, overturning a reprieve granted by a lower court. Pike's lawyers had argued that the jury did not consider mitigating evidence of her childhood sexual abuse history during sentencing in 1996. Despite her lawyers' efforts, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency request.