Tennessee execution of Christa Pike fails after two lethal injections

Governor Bill Lee has halted executions in Tennessee after 50‑year‑old inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital, the barbiturate used in the state’s lethal‑injection protocol.

According to Pike’s lawyer, she remains in hospital receiving “life‑saving care”. Tennessee’s protocol provides a second set of pentobarbital‑filled syringes if the first dose does not cause death, but it does not specify procedures if the inmate is still alive after the second dose.

Veteran reporter Michael Graczyk, who has witnessed nearly 500 executions in Texas, told BBC News that while he had never seen an execution fail after the injection was delivered, he was not surprised by the anomaly. Graczyk, 76, retired from the Associated Press in 2018 but continues to cover executions as a freelancer.

The incident adds to growing scrutiny of botched executions in the United States. The Death Penalty Information Center lists 64 botched executions since 1982, 51 of which involved lethal injection. Shortages of execution drugs have led some states to alter formulas or seek alternative methods, including the firing squad.

Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,683 executions, with Texas accounting for 602, the highest number of any state.

Source: BBC News. Photo: Following NYC / Pexels.