Execution Goes Wrong: Death Row Inmate Survives Two Lethal Injections

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By Opaluwa Oguche 

A scheduled execution in Tennessee has been halted after death row inmate Christa Pike reportedly survived two rounds of lethal injection.

Pike, 50, was due to be executed on Wednesday, September 30, for the 1995 murder of 19 year old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Knoxville job training facility.

According to court filings by Pike’s lawyers, officials administered two doses of pentobarbital. Media witnesses reported that more than 40 minutes after the second dose, Pike was still breathing and could reportedly be heard snoring.

The execution chamber was eventually closed to witnesses. At about 8:53 p.m., the microphone was cut and media witnesses were escorted away.

Pike was later transported by ambulance to an outside medical facility. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed the state’s approved execution protocol and confirmed that she was taken for medical treatment.

The incident followed a legal battle over Pike’s execution. A federal appeals court had temporarily halted it earlier in the day over concerns about whether her history of alleged childhood sexual abuse had been properly considered. The US Supreme Court later lifted the stay, allowing the execution to proceed.

Pike was 18 when Slemmer was killed. She has not denied responsibility for the murder, while her lawyers have argued that her age, mental health history and alleged childhood abuse should have received greater consideration.

Following the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended the state’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026 and ordered an independent review of what happened.

The incident is also the second failed execution attempt in Tennessee this year. In May, officials abandoned the execution of Tony Carruthers after struggling for more than an hour to establish an intravenous line.

The failure has now placed Tennessee’s execution procedures under renewed scrutiny as authorities investigate what went wrong inside the execution chamber.

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