US Execution Fails After Death Row Inmate Survives Two Lethal Injections

A scheduled execution in the United States has failed after a death row inmate in Tennessee remained alive following two lethal injections and was taken to hospital.

Christa Pike, 50, was being executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency application while the execution was underway, saying she had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring.

One of her lawyers later told the BBC that Pike was receiving life-saving treatment in hospital after two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in the execution.

A federal judge, Clifton L. Corker, subsequently noted that medical personnel had begun providing treatment following the lawyers’ request.

The Tennessee Department of Correction, however, said officials followed the state’s approved execution procedure.

Department spokesperson Dorinda Carter said the drug used in the lethal injection had consistently been effective under the state’s protocol and that officials had carried out all the procedures required. She confirmed that Pike had been taken to an off-site medical facility.

Pike’s lawyers have disputed the account, alleging that problems accessing her veins and other issues contributed to the failed execution.

A medical expert retained by Pike’s legal team, Dr. Joel Zivot, told the BBC that Pike may not have received enough pentobarbital into her bloodstream to cause the respiratory and cardiovascular failure expected during an execution.

He also raised concerns that a delay in providing emergency treatment could have resulted in brain injury.

The execution had already faced legal delays earlier Wednesday. A federal appeals court temporarily stopped it while considering arguments from Pike’s lawyers, who said the jury that sentenced her to death did not properly consider evidence of her childhood sexual abuse.

The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the temporary reprieve, allowing Tennessee to proceed with the execution.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing of Slemmer, whom she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, met at a job training camp for troubled teenagers.

Pike was 18 when the killing occurred. In a clemency petition, she acknowledged responsibility for Slemmer’s death and expressed remorse, while arguing that her age and history of abuse should have been considered.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had supported Pike’s execution and travelled from Florida to Tennessee to witness it.

Pike is the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row.

The failed execution has raised further questions about the state’s lethal-injection process, as her lawyers challenge the procedure used to carry out the sentence.