Author, James FitzGerald
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Author, Kayla Epstein
Published 3 minutes ago
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A female prisoner in Tennessee, USA, accepted the death penalty but survived after being injected with two fatal drugs. She is currently sent to the hospital for treatment and is in critical condition.
This is the second failed execution in the past six months, and Governor Bill Lee has ordered a third-party investigation and suspended the rest of Tennessee's executions this year.
The female prisoner in this incident was named Christa Pike, a convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in 1996.
Her execution has previously sparked legal attacks and defenses, and now it raises a new set of questions. What exactly went wrong? And what happens next?
Still alive after two doses, what went wrong?
Christa Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
She was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Wednesday (September 30) evening. The U.S. Supreme Court approved the lethal injection at the last moment before execution.
Parker was given two doses of pentobarbital, but her legal team said both injections failed to stop her heart and she could still be heard snoring.
The Tennessee Department of Correction defended the way it enforced the case, saying "procedural norms do not allow for additional procedures beyond those already implemented."
According to the Associated Press, current state guidelines do not specify what to do next if an inmate survives a second dose.
Authorities have not said whether they will try to execute Pike again, nor have they explained why the dose did not result in death.
Death penalty opponents said it was difficult to tell what went wrong because part of Pike's execution took place behind a curtain and part of the process was hidden from the public.
Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, an international legal organization, said: "Lethal injections rely on secrecy from start to finish to conceal the violent nature of the state's taking of human life."
What happens next?
The Tennessee Department of Corrections said Pike was transported to an out-of-state medical facility. One of her lawyers said on Wednesday that she was receiving "life-sustaining measures" in the hospital.
Attorney Randy Spivey told the media on Thursday: "We don't know her condition at this time and we don't have much new information about her health."
Dr Joel Zivot, professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC via email: "Due to the delay in starting first aid, it is very likely that she (Pike) has suffered brain damage."
Historically, the U.S. Supreme Court has never blocked a second execution attempt, said John Mills, a longtime attorney who represents death row inmates.
In 2024, the court allowed Alabama to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith again, using experimental hypoxia; two years earlier, authorities had failed to execute him with drug injection.
In 1947, a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed Louisiana to once again send teenager Willie Francis to the electric chair, after his first failed execution at age 17.
The court ruled that the second execution did not violate the Constitution's prohibitions on double jeopardy or cruel and unusual punishment, and Francis was eventually executed at the age of 18.
Referring to the Pike case, Mills said: "If the question is whether a federal court might step in to prevent a second execution, I'm afraid the answer is very clear: no."
What is the drug "Pentobarbital"?
Pentobarbital is a powerful sedative that slows down body functions, including nervous system activity.
Physicians sometimes use pentobarbital to treat certain illnesses, but in high doses it can also cause death by lethal injection.
Last year, the U.S. federal government conducted a review under the Joe Biden administration, which sparked renewed concern about the drug's use in lethal injections. The review said the drug could cause "unnecessary pain and suffering".
The Biden administration has therefore banned the use of the drug in executions at the federal level, but the ban does not apply to state governments such as Tennessee that can decide on their own how executions are carried out.
In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for states to obtain execution drugs as drug companies object to their products being used in executions.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections did not respond directly to Parker's legal team's claims. Parker's lawyers questioned whether the pentobarbital used in the execution may have deteriorated, affecting its effectiveness.
Have similar incidents occurred in the past?
This is not the first failed execution case in Tennessee this year.
The last time involved prisoner Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994. His execution was originally scheduled for May this year, but was postponed because staff could not find a suitable vein for injection. He was granted a one-year moratorium by the governor.
According to statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center, more than one-third of executions in the United States in 2022 had errors or serious problems.
Who was the victim of the murder?
Who was Colleen Slemmer that Pike killed in 1995?
The two met at a vocational training camp for "troubled youth".
Slimer's body was engraved on the chest with an inverted Pentagram, a symbol often associated with Satan worship groups.
Parker accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.
He was spared the death penalty because he was under the legal age of majority at the time of the crime.
