Christa Pike hospitalised after Tennessee execution attempt fails

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been taken to hospital after an attempt to execute her by lethal injection failed, according to her lawyers.

Pike, 50, was administered two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday evening, but remained alive.

Her legal team filed an emergency motion during the execution, saying Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring.

One of her attorneys told the BBC that Pike was subsequently receiving life-saving treatment at an off-site medical facility.

A federal judge later noted that medical personnel had begun providing the care requested by Pike’s lawyers.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed the state’s established execution protocol and stood by the actions taken.

The department’s spokesperson, Dorinda Carter, said the protocol did not allow for additional procedures beyond those carried out and confirmed that Pike had been taken to hospital.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review into what happened and said the state’s final scheduled execution of the year would not proceed as planned.

Pike’s attempted execution had already been the subject of an intense last-minute legal battle. The US Supreme Court ultimately allowed the lethal injection to proceed after lower courts considered requests to halt it.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she met at a job training camp for troubled teenagers.

Pike was 18 at the time of the killing. She and her then-boyfriend and co-defendant, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted after Slemmer was beaten, tortured and killed in 1995.

Shipp was 17 when the murder happened and was therefore not eligible for the death penalty. He remains in prison.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had travelled to Tennessee hoping to witness Pike’s execution after waiting decades for the sentence to be carried out.

Following Wednesday’s failed attempt, Martinez told NBC News simply, ‘It was a mess.’

The incident is not the first execution problem Tennessee has faced this year. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was postponed after staff were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal drug.

Pike’s lawyers have argued that concerns surrounding the execution method, including difficulties accessing her veins, were among the issues they had raised before the attempt.

They described the failed execution as a serious breakdown in the state’s process.

Pike remains in hospital following the attempted execution, while the independent review ordered by the governor is expected to examine what happened inside the execution chamber.

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