Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate who survived two doses of lethal injection in a botched execution earlier this week, is intubated on a ventilator and unconscious, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday.
Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and clear the two doses of pentobarbital, which Tennessee uses in its executions, from her system, the court filing shared by the New York Times states.
In the document, Pike’s lawyers said they believed faulty IV lines caused the drug to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote.
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Instead of “remedying this failure,” they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes, her lawyers said, noting that at least seven needles were placed in her left arm and that she arrived in hospital with swelling and blisters on both arms.
At one point she even offered guidance to the medical team as to where they might access a vein.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the failure and suspended a lone state execution scheduled for later this year.
Other Republican political leaders in Tennessee said the state should review whether to stop single-drug lethal injections and consider other options to carry out death sentences.
State officials have not offered any explanation about what went wrong during the execution attempt.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,’ the AP added.
Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced is “singular and unparalleled.”
According to the filing, Pike warned the courts nine months ago that the lethal injection may result in cruel and unusual punishment due to existing health conditions, including thrombocytosis, small veins and post-traumatic stress, and expressed that these characteristics would make it “significantly more difficult” to maintain IV access.
— with files from the Associated Press
Are Americans acting idiotically? y’all’re gonna kill her anyways, so just put a bag over her head and be done with it. $.02 bag saves the taxpayers $1M. FFIY. YW.
Maybe they need to change the medicine they are using to fentanyl as it seems to work to kill thousands of people who are not on death row. If she is supposed to be dead why not turn off the ventilator. Why are they keeping her alive? What is the point? She is most likely brain dead. Get better doctors to do the job and it is stupid for the warden to resign.
Yes, they “saved the life” of the woman that did not die from the execution…because stupidity.
SEND HER TO CANADA, THEY ARE PROS ON KILLING UP HERE
send her to Canadian hospital, they have killed 1000s effectively
The ventilator was a popular execution method in 2020 for elderly flu patients, so the hospital’s administration could collect the $35k incentive for covid deaths.
Bleeding liberal hearts!
Enough!
Why have they put her on ventilator? She was supposed to be executed and die. So let her die! No mercy as she had no mercy for her victim! The other girl lost her life, was tortured by her for at least 30 min.
If she was scheduled to die then she should have died by any means.
Anon she attacked someone in prison. It was not self defense.
Why the need for vulgarity?
@Anonymous – October 2, 2026 at 5:05 pm
– because we already know you would roll over in prison and let Bubba take you raw and up the azz. Get your head out of dad’s azz.
If at first you fail, try and try again!
Not important
“there has been worse crimes committed”
Torture and murder isn’t bad enough for you?
Pitiful unjustness
Cruel Unjustness Pitiful
This is a sure sign that there should not have been an execution period! Why don’t they just start burning women on the stake again! These morons need to be excecuted! Until you love in someone’s shoes do not judge! Allow this woman to love her life out in prison but it would be wise to allow the public to view WHY she is even on death row? The story was just as incomplete as the horrible death sentence!
I AM appalled. USA tax paying citizen! I do not want my money going towards this & or abortion & any cruelty to animals & old people harm & the mentally I’ll which I know Families also place people in the nut houses just to keep them silenced from corruption they do!!! It’s an Evil World full of veils of unjust people!
The system is fucked
I think that the media should just leave this woman alone it failed she has done her time there has been worse crimes committed and they get a slap on the hand grow up society get her well and let her walk
2 lethal doses into the muscle tissue instead of the veins? She probably has brain damage, especially since she’s on a ventilator now. There is a good chance she will not wake up, or will wake up and be found non-competent for the death penalty due to the damage.
I do think she should be executed. But it should be done humanely.
Joe. This criminal was an adult who then went on to do more violent acts inside the prison after being incarcerated.
Must be a ‘sign’ – give her parole, she was only a kid when she committed the crime. Useless USA screws up everything.
FIRST 2 FAIL, UP DOSE AND GIVE 5 MORE !!! UP DOSE EACH TIME. Z E R O MERCY
FAIL FIRST TIME, REPEAT UNTIL D E A D !!! VERY SIMPLE ! LET ME TAKE OVER
Why does the media keep referring and referring and referring and referring to this criminal’s gender? Do other criminals get that sort of treatment? If not, then why is the media making the gender an issue here?
The same with the Clancy case.
Hillbilly execution … only in the inept USA