Will Christa Pike face execution again? Experts weigh in

As convicted murderer and death row inmate Christa Pike lies in a critical condition after a botched state execution, experts are questioning what comes next if she survives.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death aged 18 in Tennessee for the murder of a classmate and was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection yesterday after the US Supreme Court overturned an appeals court decision to stay the execution.

Pike received two doses of pentobarbital but witnesses said she continued to breathe for more than an hour, with distressing noises including snores, squeals, and gurgles heard before the execution was suspended and witnesses ushered out.

Pike’s lawyers this morning said she was receiving “life-saving care” but were unaware of her prognosis.

Should Pike survive and recover, experts are divided on what happens next.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee has announced a suspension of executions for the rest of 2026 at least, including for Pike, as he ordered a review into the failure.

Pike may have suffered brain damage during the procedure, Maya Foa of human rights organisation Reprive told the ABC, and even if she survives, she may no longer meet the mental competency threshold for execution.

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She could also be granted a reprieve of varying length. If she continues to face the death sentence, her lawyers may argue that undergoing a second lethal injection violates the US Constitution’s clause forbidding cruel and unusual punishment.

US attorney Ken Turkel told Today that a range of legal actions could be expected, including a motion from Pike’s lawyers declaring the execution method “cruel and unusual” and therefore constitutionally prohibited, while she could also launch a pain and suffering civil lawsuit.

“Maybe she gets a reconsideration of the sentence because of this. I don’t really know,” Turkel said.

“There’s certainly been cases throughout the US where it was tried more than once.”

Tennessee switched to a single-drug execution method in 2013. Previously, a three drug regimen involving an anaesthetic, a paralytic, and potassium chloride was used to stop the heart, Turkel said.

According to state law, Tennessee in 2000 determined that lethal injection would be the primary method of execution, with the electric chair as a backup in case the drugs were not available.

But prisoners who committed their death row crimes before January 1, 1999, are still allowed to opt for the chair.

Pike was convicted over the 1995 murder of fellow Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Her attorneys said Pike had expressed concern over the lethal injection not working due to a blood disorder that made it difficult to locate her veins.

According to varying reports, Pike had requested execution by either firing squad or hanging, but was denied.

If Pike lives, some experts have claimed she would be the first person to survive multiple doses of pentobarbital.

There is only limited precedent for what comes next.

While it’s not uncommon to have a “botched” execution – when something differs from official protocol – it’s exceedingly rare for an execution to simply fail, said Austin Sarat, an Amherst College professor and author of several books on the death penalty and lethal injection.

In a case 80 years ago, Willie Francis survived the electric chair in Louisiana, only to be executed on a second attempt.

“So we’re in kind of unprecedented territory with Pike in the sense of she survived her execution,” he said.

Sarat considers Pike to be “the first person to survive a lethal injection where the drugs reached her.”

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, in the running to replace Lee as governor, called for the “return” of the electric chair as a primary execution method after Pike’s execution failed.

Her Democratic opponent Jerri Green, a public defender, said she would put a moratorium on all state executions, whatever the method.

What is pentobarbital?

The drug is a barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system, and has approved medical uses including as a sedative and a treatment for insomnia.

Experts quoted in a US 2025 federal review argued the pentobarbital dosage used in executions can cause pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs that may create a sensation of suffocating.

The review concluded that “there remains significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single drug lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering” and advised that the government should “err on the side of humane treatment.”

The pentobarbital protocol was adopted at the federal level during US President Donald Trump’s first term to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s.

As with Tennessee’s guidelines, the federal death penalty protocol calls for administering a five-gram dose of pentobarbital; in medical settings, patients typically receive a fraction of a gram.

Trump resumed the federal death penalty after an informal moratorium during previous administrations.

The federal government used pentobarbital in 13 executions between 2020 and 2021, contributing to making Trump the most prolific execution president in over 130 years.

During the Biden administration, the Justice Department stopped executions with pentobarbital after a government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering.”

After Trump came back to power, the Justice Department in 2026 reauthorised the use of lethal injections with pentobarbital.

Trump himself expressed surprise at the botched execution.

“How does that happen? Should be easy to do. It shouldn’t be very difficult,” he told reporters in Texas, according to the New York Post.

“That was an interesting situation, but you’re going to have to speak to Tennessee about it. Whether or not they’re going to go forward.”

Multiple states including Tennessee have struggled with lethal injections in recent years, giving rise to novel methods, like executions by nitrogen gas, and the return of old methods, such as the firing squad.

The central issue with lethal injection is it’s a “Frankenstein version” of a medical procedure, said Corinna Barrett Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the 2025 book “Secrets of the Killing State: the Untold Story of Lethal Injection.”

These executions generally feature drugs of questionable quality, nonmedical personnel administering the drugs and patients with notoriously weak veins, Lain said. Lethal injection’s “botch rate” is twice that of other methods, she said.

“It has all of the delicacy and need for accuracy of the medical model, but then it’s been warped to suit the executioner’s needs,” she said.

“It’s a recipe for disaster from the start.”

Reported with CNN, Associated Press.