The shock over the failed execution of Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder in the USA, is written on the face of eyewitness Tori Gessner. "I witnessed five executions in Tennessee. Nothing about today was normal, typical - nothing at all," said the reporter from local station WKRN in Nashville later in front of the cameras.
The first scheduled execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years had serious complications. Gessner and other journalists were accredited as witnesses to witness an execution that legal experts are already describing as unprecedented. On Thursday morning (local time) Pike was in a hospital, reports the US broadcaster NBC.
“My arm feels like it’s going to burst open.”
At 7:26 p.m. (local time) the evening before, the blinds to the execution room were opened for the witnesses. Pike was seen strapped to a lounger.
During the course of the procedure, during which Pike was given two lethal injections containing the active ingredient pentobarbital, the 50-year-old spoke several complete sentences, breathed heavily and then snored, eyewitnesses later recalled. "My arm feels like it's about to burst open. One spot is throbbing really hard," Pike is said to have said, according to media witness Gessner.
According to the witnesses, the blinds were closed and opened several times during the procedure. Prison officials removed the witnesses from the room at 8:53 p.m. At that point, Pike could still be heard breathing.
“This event is the worst we have ever seen and is unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center (DPI). “There is no precedent.”
Pike is being treated in a nearby hospital, her lawyers later said in a statement that several US media outlets consistently quoted. “We were not informed of her condition,” it continued. But the multi-member legal team has sharply criticized the authorities' actions.
Already the second failed execution
"We take no joy in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike have proven to be true: difficult access to veins, ruptured veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, and all under a protocol that continues to be shrouded in secrecy," the statement said.
This is the second failed execution in the state of Tennessee this year. In May, a planned lethal injection procedure had to be stopped at the last second because medical staff couldn't find a vein. One of the doctors involved in the botched execution in May was also scheduled to take part in Pike's execution, US broadcaster NBC reports. The doctor has not placed a central venous catheter for 13 years, reports the US radio station NPR.
There was a freeze on executions in Tennessee from 2022 to 2025 after it became known that the US state had repeatedly violated its own guidelines between 2018 and 2022 and had not properly tested the drugs used for lethal injections, reports US broadcaster NBC.
Executions scheduled for 2026 halted in Tennessee
After the failed execution late Wednesday, Republican Governor Bill Lee decided to halt all executions planned for the remainder of 2026 and ordered a "comprehensive review by an independent third party" to determine exactly what happened, US media reported unanimously, citing a statement from the governor.
"Enforcing a lawfully imposed sentence is one of the state's most important responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only lawful and constitutional, but also effective," Lee said in the statement.
Failed executions in the USA are not an isolated case
In addition to the failed execution in Tennessee in May, there have been repeated executions in the past that have either failed or been torturous. Executions often fail because health workers are unable to insert the necessary cannula or find a vein, such as in Alabama in 2022 or in Idaho in 2024. Lethal injection is the most common method of execution in the United States. Since 2024, execution with nitrogen has been permitted in several states, which in practice leads to a painful agony for the condemned.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a 19-year-old acquaintance. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime. In 1995, three teenagers tortured and killed the victim in a remote area near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
