US death row inmate survives two lethal injection doses during failed execution attempt

A female death row inmate in the United States has been taken to hospital after surviving two doses of a lethal injection drug during an attempted execution in Tennessee.

According to the BBC, Christa Pike, 50, was undergoing execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the procedure was halted after the drugs failed to produce the intended result.

Prison officials administered two separate doses of pentobarbital during the execution attempt. Witnesses said the curtain separating the execution chamber from the viewing area was closed twice during the procedure before media representatives were asked to leave.

Emergency legal motion filed

Pike remained alive after both doses were administered, prompting her lawyers to file an emergency motion seeking to stop the execution.

Court documents stated that Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring.

A judge subsequently ruled that medical personnel had begun providing care in response to the emergency application.

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

Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert retained by Pike’s defence team, said it was possible that the amount of pentobarbital reaching her bloodstream was insufficient to cause cardiovascular failure.

He also warned that delays in beginning resuscitation could potentially result in brain injury.

Officials defend execution procedure

The Tennessee Department of Correction said officials followed the state’s approved execution protocol.

Department spokesperson Dorinda Carter said the procedure was conducted in accordance with the established guidelines approved by the Attorney General’s Office.

She said the lethal injection drug used in the protocol had consistently been effective and that the procedure did not permit additional measures beyond those already carried out.

Carter confirmed that Pike had been transported to an off-site medical facility following the failed execution attempt.

Pike’s lawyers, however, disputed the state’s account, arguing that Tennessee had once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.

Her legal team alleged that problems with establishing intravenous access, concerns over the condition of the drugs and an inadequate emergency response contributed to the failure.

The competing accounts are expected to form part of the review into what happened during the execution attempt.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

She was 18 when the crime occurred at a job training camp for troubled teenagers.

Following the failed execution attempt, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, told NBC News that the procedure had been chaotic.

“It was a mess,” she said.

Rare execution of a woman

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

Had the execution been completed, she would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.

Executions of women remain relatively rare in the United States. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, 18 women have been executed compared with 1,663 men, meaning women account for roughly 1% of executions during that period.