1 day ago
PUBLISHED
OCT 03, 2026 AT 07:38 PM EDT
Tennessee officials are still investigating why death row inmate Christa Pike survived an execution attempt after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a drug intended to render a person unconscious and ultimately cause death.
While the immediate focus has been on what went wrong inside the execution chamber, experts say Pike's case has also renewed scrutiny of a problem that has been building for more than a decade: how states obtain lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical companies moved aggressively to keep their products from being used in executions. Despite those efforts, pentobarbital remains the primary execution drug used by many death-penalty states, making questions about sourcing, testing and oversight especially significant.
The issue has reshaped how many states carry out executions, forcing them to change drug protocols, seek alternative suppliers and adopt increasingly secretive procurement practices.
#pentobarbital #executions #published #tennessee
OCT 03, 2026 AT 07:38 PM EDT
Tennessee officials are still investigating why death row inmate Christa Pike survived an execution attempt after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a drug intended to render a person unconscious and ultimately cause death.
While the immediate focus has been on what went wrong inside the execution chamber, experts say Pike's case has also renewed scrutiny of a problem that has been building for more than a decade: how states obtain lethal injection drugs after pharmaceutical companies moved aggressively to keep their products from being used in executions. Despite those efforts, pentobarbital remains the primary execution drug used by many death-penalty states, making questions about sourcing, testing and oversight especially significant.
The issue has reshaped how many states carry out executions, forcing them to change drug protocols, seek alternative suppliers and adopt increasingly secretive procurement practices.
#pentobarbital #executions #published #tennessee
2 days ago
The failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on Wednesday has added new fuel to the longstanding debate over the death penalty in the United States. It has also drawn new scrutiny to the question of whether lethal injection, the nation's primary method of execution for the past 40 years, is truly a "more humane" alternative to other ways of putting someone to death.
Pike was given a death sentence in 1996 after being convicted of killing her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in an attack she carried out with her then boyfriend. After 30 years on death row, and a last-minute legal battle that temporarily delayed her execution, Pike was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday night.
However, the two doses of pentobarbital she was given proved not to be fatal. According to witnesses, Pike remained alive and snored loudly for 40 minutes after the drugs were administered. Eventually, the execution was called off and she was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Pike's attorney Randy Spivey reported Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition and receiving "life-saving care." She was unconscious and placed on a ventilator in the hospital, according to a filing by her legal team on Friday.
Spivey admonished the state for going forward with lethal injection despite his warnings ahead of time that a blood-clotting disorder called thrombocytosis "would cause her to suffer an agonizing death." Pike's attorneys had asked the courts to permit her to die by hanging, but the request was denied.
#pike #years #given
Pike was given a death sentence in 1996 after being convicted of killing her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in an attack she carried out with her then boyfriend. After 30 years on death row, and a last-minute legal battle that temporarily delayed her execution, Pike was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday night.
However, the two doses of pentobarbital she was given proved not to be fatal. According to witnesses, Pike remained alive and snored loudly for 40 minutes after the drugs were administered. Eventually, the execution was called off and she was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Pike's attorney Randy Spivey reported Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition and receiving "life-saving care." She was unconscious and placed on a ventilator in the hospital, according to a filing by her legal team on Friday.
Spivey admonished the state for going forward with lethal injection despite his warnings ahead of time that a blood-clotting disorder called thrombocytosis "would cause her to suffer an agonizing death." Pike's attorneys had asked the courts to permit her to die by hanging, but the request was denied.
#pike #years #given
2 days ago
Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said the emergency court hearing request was granted by a judge.
An Oct. 2 emergency court filing seeks to preserve all evidence related to Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike, arguing the state botched the lethal injection procedure.
A judge was considering the request shortly after it was filed. While an unsigned document for the hearing was filed in the court system, no date or time was immediately listed.
Pike was set to be executed by the Tennessee Department of Correction on Sept. 30, but survived two doses of pentobarbital. The document, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Oct. 2, revealed more details about Pike's condition. It said she is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.
"Hospital staff are working to save Ms. Pike's life and to clear the pentobarbital from her system," the Oct. 2 motion stated.
#pike #correction #hospital #hearing
An Oct. 2 emergency court filing seeks to preserve all evidence related to Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike, arguing the state botched the lethal injection procedure.
A judge was considering the request shortly after it was filed. While an unsigned document for the hearing was filed in the court system, no date or time was immediately listed.
Pike was set to be executed by the Tennessee Department of Correction on Sept. 30, but survived two doses of pentobarbital. The document, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Oct. 2, revealed more details about Pike's condition. It said she is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.
"Hospital staff are working to save Ms. Pike's life and to clear the pentobarbital from her system," the Oct. 2 motion stated.
#pike #correction #hospital #hearing
3 days ago
The mother of the woman killed by Christa Pike said she was left without justice after Tennessee's failed attempt to carry out the execution, criticizing the state's handling of a procedure that left the death row prisoner hospitalized in critical condition.
"I didn't get justice for my daughter," May Martinez, whose daughter Colleen Slemmer was killed in 1995, told the ******* ociated Press on Thursday.
Martinez traveled to Nashville to witness the execution Wednesday. Instead, she watched as officials administered two doses of the state's execution drug pentobarbital without killing Pike.
"I watched the whole thing. She was awake," she said. "She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn't work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn't work the second time, so she's in the hospital and alive."
The inmate is receiving life-saving medical care, according to her legal team, who have asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence.
#execution #left
"I didn't get justice for my daughter," May Martinez, whose daughter Colleen Slemmer was killed in 1995, told the ******* ociated Press on Thursday.
Martinez traveled to Nashville to witness the execution Wednesday. Instead, she watched as officials administered two doses of the state's execution drug pentobarbital without killing Pike.
"I watched the whole thing. She was awake," she said. "She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn't work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn't work the second time, so she's in the hospital and alive."
The inmate is receiving life-saving medical care, according to her legal team, who have asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence.
#execution #left
4 days ago
The lethal drug administered in Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike has been used in multiple states that carry out the death penalty and by the U.S. government after President Donald Trump resumed federal executions during his first term.
Pike, 50, remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital were administered Wednesday, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. One of her lawyers said Thursday that she was being treated at a hospital.
Tennessee officials haven't explained yet what went wrong during the execution.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review to determine what happened and said another scheduled execution in Tennessee will not take place this year.
Pentobarbital is a barbiturate, a class of drugs that depresses the central nervous system.
#pike #administered #execution #wednesday
Pike, 50, remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital were administered Wednesday, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. One of her lawyers said Thursday that she was being treated at a hospital.
Tennessee officials haven't explained yet what went wrong during the execution.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review to determine what happened and said another scheduled execution in Tennessee will not take place this year.
Pentobarbital is a barbiturate, a class of drugs that depresses the central nervous system.
#pike #administered #execution #wednesday
4 days ago
Tennessee's only female death row inmate has been taken to the hospital after surviving two doses of lethal injection drugs, her lawyers said.
Christa Pike, 50, was alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said.
Pike had been scheduled for execution 10 a.m. Wednesday for a killing she committed at age 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay shortly after.
Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney. "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love," she said in her "last" words.
#doses #christa
Christa Pike, 50, was alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said.
Pike had been scheduled for execution 10 a.m. Wednesday for a killing she committed at age 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay shortly after.
Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney. "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love," she said in her "last" words.
#doses #christa
