Tennessee inmate still alive after being administered two lethal injections

Tennessee carried out an attempted execution of Christa Pike, the state’s only woman on death row, but after two lethal-injection syringes were administered witnesses and her lawyers reported she remained alive, snoring and with a detectable heartbeat while complaining of pain. Journalists present described her kicking off sheets and saying her arm felt like it would “burst open”; curtains to the chamber were closed twice. An ambulance arrived and she was transported to an off-site medical facility. Gov. Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive third-party review and suspended the last scheduled execution for the year. The Department of Correction said it followed established protocol, while Pike’s attorneys called the event a failed attempt, noting Tennessee had already experienced a bungled execution attempt earlier this year.

Pike was convicted in 1996 for the grisly 1995 killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18; investigators tied the case to occult elements and alleged she kept a fragment of the victim’s skull. Her legal team sought to reopen sentencing proceedings to present decades-old sexual and physical abuse and resulting PTSD, arguing such mitigation could have altered the death sentence. A federal appeals court briefly stayed the execution to review those claims before the Supreme Court cleared the way to proceed over dissent from three justices. Pike’s case would have marked the first female execution in Tennessee in more than 200 years.