Nocturnal 
Christa Pike is believed to be the first person to survive an execution by lethal injection, after Tennessee’s attempt to put her to death on Wednesday went badly wrong. The 50-year-old remains in critical condition in hospital, and Donald Trump has now weighed in with a blunt question about how it could have happened.
Pike was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital during the execution at a maximum security prison, but survived both. Witnesses reportedly watched the curtain in the death chamber close twice, only for Pike to still be alive. She was eventually rushed to an off-site medical facility for emergency treatment.
What Trump said
Speaking to reporters while travelling to Texas, Trump called the case an “interesting situation” and said any decision on what happens next was down to the state. “That was an execution where the medication didn’t exactly work,” he said, before asking: “How does that happen?”
Trump then turned to Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, a physician who previously served as his White House doctor, and asked him the same question, adding “he’s a great doctor”. Jackson replied: “I don’t know how that happens. It should be easy to do.” Trump echoed that sentiment himself, telling reporters: “Should be easy to do. It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
What went wrong
Pike’s attorney, Randy Spivey, said she was pierced with at least seven needles as medical staff struggled to find a usable vein, with one needle reportedly coming out bent. Her right arm is said to have turned purple after the second dose of pentobarbital. Spivey described the botched attempt as “cruel and torturous” and has called it “chemical torture”.
Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine who has followed the case closely, told The Sun he believes a botched insertion likely caused pentobarbital to leak into the tissue around Pike’s arm rather than her bloodstream. He said this could have left her with significant burns and a weakened heart, and told the BBC he believes doctors didn’t act quickly enough to prevent lasting damage.
A federal judge, Clifton L. Corker, issued an emergency ruling ordering medical care for Pike, which forced officials to halt the execution. It’s understood to be the second botched execution in Tennessee in four months involving the same doctor, after an attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May was abandoned when staff couldn’t establish IV access for more than an hour.
Where things stand now
Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who she tortured and killed with her then-boyfriend when she was 18. She had been due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Her lawyers had previously warned that a rare blood disorder could make a lethal injection “prolonged and agonising”, and said Pike had asked to be executed by firing squad or hanging instead.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has cancelled the state’s final scheduled execution of 2026 and ordered a thorough third-party investigation, calling the case a “tragedy”. Executions in the state have been suspended while officials establish what went wrong.
Pike’s legal team is now pushing for her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment, and her attorneys say it’s still unclear what long-term damage she may have suffered. Her prognosis remains unknown as she continues to receive hospital care.
