State probes lethal injection survival of killer Christa Pike

The Tennessee Department of Correction said Wednesday that death row inmate Christa Gail Pike, age 50, survived her attempted execution by lethal injection. It wasn’t clear on Thursday morning how she survived the chemical injection, which the department said was previously effective. Gov. Bill Lee ordered a thorough third-party investigation into what happened, and also halted the one remaining execution scheduled for this year, according to the Associated Press. Pike was sentenced to death for her brutal 1995 murder of fellow Jobs Corps worker Colleen Slemmer, according to the correction department. Pike was 19 years old when she committed the crime.

The correction department said it correctly followed the state’s execution protocol, which authorizes death by a lethal injection of pentobarbital. The protocol also says a second injection may be given if the first does not kill the inmate, but it doesn’t dictate what happens if the person survives both injections. The department said that Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility but did not give further details about her medical treatment.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday halted Pike’s execution just before it was scheduled to begin, but the Supreme Court swiftly reversed that order. Pike’s attorneys had argued that Tennessee failed to consider her history of mental illness and sexual abuse when sentencing her, according to court documents. The Supreme Court did not explain its reasoning for allowing the execution to go forward. The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the majority’s decision.

Dig deeper: Read my report on three executions that took place on the same day in August.