Inmate stays alive even after two doses of lethal drug

The execution of Christa Gail Pike, who was sentenced to death for committing a murder in 1995 in the US state of Tennessee, ended unexpectedly. Despite being administered the lethal injection drug twice, the inmate did not die.

50-year-old Pike was taken from the execution chamber to a hospital in an ambulance. Her lawyers confirmed she survived, but stated they had not been provided with information regarding her current condition.

Pike was scheduled to be executed on October 1. However, shortly before the process began, the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted the execution. The court stated that time was needed to review whether Pike's claims of childhood sexual abuse had been sufficiently taken into account during sentencing.

The Attorney General's Office appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court. Subsequently, the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed. Three liberal judges, including Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.

Pike's lawyers filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court, stating that “unnecessary suffering” had been inflicted upon her during the execution process. They requested that the inmate be provided with life-saving medical care.

What crime did Pike commit?

Christa Gail Pike was convicted for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995.

According to prosecutors, Pike took Slemmer to a wooded area out of concern that Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend. It was established that Pike's boyfriend at the time also participated in the murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pike, meanwhile, received the death penalty. She was later diagnosed with a number of mental disorders. Her supporters have consistently argued that her age at the time of the crime (18), her mental state, and claims of severe childhood abuse should be taken into consideration regarding her punishment.

Pike did not deny committing the murder. In her clemency petition, she stated that she only intended to argue with Slemmer, but the situation got out of control.

Meanwhile, Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had spent decades waiting for justice for her son's death. She had prepared to travel to Tennessee to witness the execution.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the US in 1976, 18 women have been executed. This accounts for approximately 1 percent of all executions in the country.

Had Pike's execution been carried out, she would have been the 30th person executed in the US in 2026 and the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.