US state considering new execution methods after botched injection

Tennessee lawmakers will consider changing the state’s method of execution after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital in a procedure that took over an hour. Her attorneys claimed seven needles were injected into her arms.

She has been receiving life-saving care in a hospital since the failed execution last Wednesday.

The incident, along with another failed lethal injection in the state earlier this year, has put a spotlight on the single-drug method of execution, which experts say has a high failure rate compared to other options.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton says Pike’s execution should proceed, but that lawmakers would consider whether the state would adopt alternative methods.

“In my opinion, the state of Tennessee needs to carry out the execution of Christa Pike for the horrendous and torturing murder that she did on Colleen (Slemmer) back in the ’90s, and that needs to be carried out in the state of Tennessee, regardless,” he told CNN.

“I don’t think we’re going to limit what alternatives we may use. I think we’re going to look at all that as we look over the next several months to see what direction we want to go.”

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He noted that some states had returned to using firing squads, as difficulties mount over securing limited supplies of lethal drugs.

Pike requested a firing squad as her preferred method of execution, fearing her blood disorder would interfere with a lethal injection.

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running to become the state’s next governor, called for the state to bring back the electric chair as its default method of execution.

Her Democratic opponent, Jerri Green, said as governor she would halt all executions.

Needle ‘blew her vein’

Earlier, US outlet RadarOnline claimed to have been leaked a photo from an insider linked to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, showing Pike’s arm after the injections.

The image, which RadarOnline chose not to publish, reportedly “shows her severely bruised arm, marred by trauma and internal bleeding from the elbow downward, leaving her nearly purple”.

The source alleged the injections “blew her vein”, meaning the lethal chemicals went into Pike’s muscle tissue instead of her bloodstream.

They also claimed she suffered “stroke-like symptoms”, according to RadarOnline.

Pike’s attorneys previously said she had arrived at the hospital with “swollen, burned, and blistered” arms.

Witnesses to her execution described Pike as snoring and moaning after the injections, and said she had complained about a burning feeling in her arm.

Her failed execution triggered a storm of controversy in the US, with Tennessee’s Department of Corrections head Frank Strada resigning his position.

Governor Bill Lee has ordered a halt on all other executions for the rest of the year.

Pike’s attorneys said she had raised her fears her execution could go awry due to a lifelong blood disorder that made accessing her veins difficult.

They claimed she had attempted to guide her executioners by suggesting potential injection spots during the procedure.

Pike was sentenced to death at 18 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, in 1995.

Pike believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, who became Pike’s accomplice in Slemmer’s brutal death.

The pair lured Slemmer to an isolated area and Pike cut her repeatedly with a box cutter before fatally striking her in the head with a chunk of asphalt.

Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest, while Pike took a fragment of her skull as a gruesome “souvenir” to boast of.

Shipp, a minor at the time, was sentenced to life in prison and remains behind bars.

A third participant, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, served as a lookout during the murder and received parole after agreeing to become a witness for the prosecution and pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

Pike’s was Tennessee’s second botched execution this year, after those administering a lethal injection to murderer Tony Carruthers in May could not establish an intravenous line.