The attempt to execute 50-year-old Krista Pike in the American state of Tennessee ended in an unprecedented situation: the condemned woman remained alive after the administration of two doses of the drug intended for lethal injection. As a result, the procedure was halted, and the woman was transported to a hospital by ambulance.
The execution was scheduled for September 30. Pike was to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
Just hours before the procedure, a federal appeals court stayed the execution; however, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted that stay, allowing state authorities to proceed with the execution.
According to the Associated Press, at 8:26 PM, witnesses reported the administration of the second dose of pentobarbital. However, Pike continued to breathe. Her attorneys stated that she remained alive and her loud breathing, resembling snoring, could be heard. The sounds continued behind the closed curtain until 8:53 PM, after which the microphone was turned off and journalists were escorted out of the room.
Pike's attorneys urgently appealed to the court, demanding an immediate halt to the procedure. Following this, the condemned woman was transported from the prison by ambulance to a hospital.
The incident was further addressed at the state leadership level. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a suspension of all remaining executions until the end of 2026 and called for an independent investigation into the reasons for what occurred.
This is already the second case in Tennessee this year where authorities failed to carry out a death sentence. In May, the execution of another inmate had to be canceled after staff were unable to establish an intravenous catheter for over an hour.
Krista Pike was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Collin Slimmer, committed in 1995. At the time of the crime, Pike was 18 years old.
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