Christa Pike survives Tennessee execution attempt after two pentobarbital doses

Tennessee’s attempt to execute Christa Pike on Sept. 30 failed after two doses of pentobarbital; witnesses reported that she remained conscious, spoke of pain in her arm and made snoring sounds before she was taken to hospital. The 50-year-old, sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18, was critically ill and receiving life-saving care the following day, with her prognosis unclear. Her lawyers said they had warned the state that a blood condition and difficulty finding veins put her at risk, called the execution cruel and torturous, and urged Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence. Lee halted the remaining executions scheduled in Tennessee for the year and ordered an independent review of what happened. The failure, Tennessee’s second botched execution in four months, has renewed scrutiny of lethal injection and the state’s ability to carry out executions.