Christa Pike is receiving 'life-saving care' after a botched execution - what happens next?

LAST UPDATE | 13 hrs ago

CHRISTA PIKE IS in a critical condition and receiving “life-saving care” after the Tennessee inmate survived two attempts to execute her using lethal injection, her lawyer has said. 

The 50-year-old was whisked from a prison execution chamber to a hospital on Wednesday night, still alive despite two deadly doses of pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate that is used to treat seizures. 

“What we have been told is that she is in critical condition, receiving life-saving care,” Randy Spivey said in a virtual news conference on Thursday afternoon, declining to provide further details.

He urged Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who had denied a clemency request earlier in the week, to scrap Pike’s death sentence and commute it to a life sentence. 

The case had already attracted scrutiny before the botched attempt as Pike would have been the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

What happens next?

Tennessee authorities have not yet announced if they will attempt to executive Pike again, but Pike’s legal team is arguing that another execution attempt would constitute “chemical torture”. 

“After having endured solitary confinement for more than 20 years and a full attempt to kill her by lethal injection, Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty. The governor must commute Christa’s sentence now,” Randy Spivey said.

However, the landmark legal case in this area rules that a second execution can be attempted after a botched execution.

In the 1947 case of Louisiana v Resweber, the US Supreme Court held that a second execution after an electric chair malfunctioned did not violate the Eighth Amendment – which protects people from cruel and unusual punishment. 

But the most recent failed execution attempt in Tennessee – that of Tony Carruthers in May 2026 – was called off after medical staff were unable to tap a vein.

Carruthers (57) was scheduled to be put to death at a prison in Nashville for the 1994 murders of Delois Anderson, her son Marcellos Anderson and Frederick Tucker.

Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve from execution.

The attempted execution in Pike’s situation is different from that of Carruthers, as according to experts on the US death penalty it is “unlike any other botched execution”.

“This failed attempt is the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

He cited seven inmates whose executions could not be carried out because medical staff were unable to establish IV lines, but “Pike is the first person to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs.”

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It is not yet clear what will happen to Pike if she survives, but there likely will not be another execution attempt made against her this year at least, as Lee has already called off the remaining execution scheduled in Tennessee this year. 

‘Loudly snoring’

Pike’s legal team had previously objected to the execution IV protocol, saying it would have caused needless suffering due to her small veins and a blood condition.

“I counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt” to start an IV line, Spivey said.

Lawyer Stephen Ferrell said medical experts had warned of needles becoming dislodged or piercing through the vein, causing lethal drugs to flow into Pike’s arm instead of the bloodstream.

“It sounds like that is likely to have occurred,” he said.

Media witnesses said Pike told execution staff her arm felt like it would “burst open,” and Spivey said he saw her right arm turn purple, especially after the second lethal injection.

Pike’s case had sparked debate over capital punishment for young criminals. She was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer (19) at a job training camp.

The killing gained national attention after Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram, often seen as a satanic symbol, carved in her chest.

Pike’s lawyers had argued she should be granted clemency due to her young age and mental health issues at the time of Slemmer’s killing. They also cited her history of childhood sexual assault and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Following a flurry of legal filings that delayed the execution by several hours, the US Supreme Court on Wednesday night cleared the way for the punishment to go ahead.

In the US, only 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

UN rights chief Volker Türk urged Tennessee not to make a new attempt to execute Pike.

“The case of Christa Pike lays bare multiple reasons why the death penalty should be abolished,” his office said on X.

With reporting by © AFP 2026 and Sophie Finn.