Christa Pike, 50, survived a lethal injection attempt on Wednesday after receiving two doses of pentobarbital. Her attorneys said she was alive and snoring, was taken by ambulance to a hospital, and that the medical team had not been informed of her condition.
Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for a crime committed when she was 18 and would have been Tennessee’s first woman executed in more than two centuries. Governor Bill Lee announced a halt to all remaining executions for the year and ordered a third‑party review. The Department of Correction said it followed the state’s established protocol approved by the Attorney General.
The protocol requires a second set of syringes if the inmate is not deceased after the first dose, but it does not specify what to do if the person is alive after the second. A death‑penalty expert described Pike’s survival as singular, noting that while seven inmates have survived due to failed IV access, none have survived after receiving lethal‑injection drugs. Media witnesses observed Pike strapped to a gurney, and she reportedly said, “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” before she remained awake and asked if her arm felt wrong.
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court, arguing that the execution violated her right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. This is the second failed execution in Tennessee this year; in May officials aborted the execution of Tony Carruthers after an hour of unsuccessful IV placement. Pentobarbital, a barbiturate used medically for seizures, can be used alone or with other drugs in lethal injections. The Biden administration withdrew the drug from the federal protocol amid concerns about unnecessary pain, while the Trump administration reauthorized its use, citing the need to enforce the law.
