Tennessee death row inmate remains on ventilator after failed lethal injection

Christa Pike, 50, was placed on a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital on Thursday after a lethal-injection attempt on Wednesday failed to cause death. Prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike remained conscious and was later transported to the hospital in an ambulance.

Lawyers for Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, have filed an emergency motion to preserve all evidence related to the execution. They allege that multiple attempts to establish intravenous lines using at least seven needles were unsuccessful, and that a bent needle and ruptured veins prevented the drug from entering her bloodstream.

"One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," the filing states.

"She could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure," the attorneys wrote.

The state's Department of Correction maintains that its protocol was followed, while Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review and suspended all executions in the state for the remainder of the year. Authorities have not indicated whether a second execution attempt will be made.

Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist consulting for Pike's defense, said the two doses should have been lethal if properly delivered, and suggested that low blood levels of pentobarbital, possibly due to a ruptured vein or clotting from Pike's thrombocytosis, explained her survival. He also noted that drug degradation could result from poor manufacturing or storage.

The U.S. Supreme Court had previously rejected two separate attempts by Pike's lawyers to halt the execution, and the governor denied her clemency request, leaving her as the only woman on Tennessee's death row.