Tennessee authorities have failed to carry out the death sentence for convicted murderer Krista Pike. She survived two lethal injections and is now in critical condition in hospital, her lawyer said.
Even before the failed execution, Pike's case was already a high-profile one. Now a number of new questions have arisen, including what exactly went wrong and what will happen next.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review and suspended executions in Tennessee until the end of the year.
Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer the year before.
Pike's execution in Tennessee was scheduled for Wednesday evening local time. The US Supreme Court allowed the use of lethal injections at the very last moment.
Pike was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital, but her lawyers said it did not stop her heartbeat and she could be heard snoring.
According to the AP news agency, the state's protocol does not clearly outline what to do if an inmate is still alive after receiving the second dose.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections defended the method used, noting that "the protocol does not provide for any additional procedures beyond those that were performed."
Authorities have not yet said whether they will make a new attempt to carry out Pike's death sentence. They also did not explain why the dose of the drug administered to her was not fatal.
Opponents of the death penalty say it is difficult to know what exactly went wrong because part of the procedure took place behind a screen.
Maya Foa, head of the international human rights organization Reprieve, said: “The use of lethal injection is fraught with secrecy at every stage, designed to hide the brutality of the state’s actions in taking a person’s life.”
The Tennessee Department of Corrections said Pike was transported to a medical facility outside the prison, and one of her lawyers said Wednesday that the hospital was trying to save her life.
On Thursday, lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters: "We do not yet have information about the doctors' prognosis or any detailed information about the condition of her health."
Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC in an emailed comment: "It is likely that due to the delay in resuscitation, she [Pike] will suffer brain damage."
According to John Mills, a lawyer who works with death row inmates, the U.S. Supreme Court has not in the past prevented repeated attempts to carry out death sentences.
In 2024, the court allowed the state of Alabama to re-execute Kenneth Eugene Smith using an experimental method of nitrogen asphyxiation (causing oxygen deprivation) after an attempt to execute him by lethal injection failed two years earlier.
In 1947, a Supreme Court decision allowed the state of Louisiana to send teenager Willie Francis back to the electric chair; the first attempt at his execution, made when he was 17 years old, was unsuccessful. The court held that the second execution did not violate the Constitution's prohibitions on repeated prosecution for the same act or on cruel and unusual punishment; Francis was eventually executed at the age of 18.
Pentobarbital is a potent sedative that slows down processes in the body, including the functioning of the nervous system. Doctors sometimes use it to treat certain diseases, but in high doses it can be used as a lethal injection drug.
A US federal government review under the Biden administration raised concerns that the drug could cause “unnecessary pain and suffering,” raising questions about its use in lethal injections.
The Biden administration has banned the use of pentobarbital in federal executions, but the decision is not binding on individual states such as Tennessee, which can choose their own execution methods.
In recent years, it has become more difficult for state authorities to obtain some drugs needed to carry out executions as pharmaceutical companies oppose the use of their products for such purposes.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections did not specifically respond to Pike's lawyers' claim that the pentobarbital used was "degraded," meaning it had lost its properties.
The department's statement noted that the lethal injection drug "has consistently demonstrated effectiveness."
This is not the first time in Tennessee that an execution has gone wrong.
In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers, convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994, was delayed after staff were unable to find a vein to administer a lethal injection. The governor granted him a one-year deferment of execution.
More than a third of U.S. executions in 2022 were botched or highly problematic, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Killers Colleen Slemmer, Krista Pike and Tadaril Shipp, met at a vocational training camp for troubled teenagers. Pike accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend, that is, Shipp.
An inverted pentagram was found on the chest of the murdered Colleen, a symbol associated with satanic groups.
Shipp was 17 years old at the time of the murder, Pike was 18. Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and remains in prison. He managed to avoid the death penalty, since at that time he had not yet reached adulthood.
