Death Row Inmate Christa Pike’s Execution Failed

Veronica Thomas '29

Christa Pike’s execution by two injections of pentobarbital failed on Sept. 30 at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. All other executions for this year were postponed by Governor Bill Lee. 

At 50 years old, Pike has been on death row at Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center since 1996 (30 years ago) for the murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

According to AP News, “The initial 911 call came in at 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 30, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection got underway. It wasn’t until about half an hour after the initial call… that prison officials affirmed it was real and began letting responders through the gates. After being taken to a hospital, Pike was on a ventilator for several days. At one point, her attorneys did not expect her to survive.” Causing some concern, 911 dispatchers and security guards at the prison thought the initial call was a prank.

Pike regained consciousness after she was thought to be brain dead Tuesday Oct. 6. Just four days after regaining consciousness, she returned to Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. 

There is no guarantee that the state will try to execute her again for legal and moral reasons. Her attorneys are prepared to have a lengthy legal battle against it. 

Pike’s case is the latest in a series of failed executions. Only four months ago in Tennessee, Tony Carruthers also had a failed attempt at lethal injection. This failure was slightly different in that it was a failed attempt to put the IV into his arm. It has been decided that they will not attempt again to execute him for at least a year. 

Lethal injections have also failed four times in the last ten years in Ohio, Alabama and Idaho.