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What happens if a lethal injection fails to kill someone ahead of Christa Pike execution as prisoner survived it just months ago
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Ahead of Christa Gail Pike's execution later today (September 30), here's what can happen when a lethal injection fails to work.
Pike has spent 30 years behind bars since being sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of student Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
The Tennessee inmate murdered her Job Corps classmate with a box cutter, a cleaver, and a piece of asphalt after becoming jealous over her boyfriend at the time, believing Slemmer was interested in him.
She also cut her throat and carved satanic symbols onto her body, keeping a fragment of her skull.
Pike's legal team has tried to avoid her undergoing the death penalty, citing her mental health and religion as reasons against the method.
As the only woman on death row in Tennessee, she is set to become the first woman to be executed in the state in 200 years.
The sentence will be carried out at 10:00AM CDT at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville - but what if it doesn't go to plan?
Lethal injection failed earlier this year
Back on May 21, 2026, the state of Tennessee administered the lethal injection to inmate Tony Carruthers, but he is still alive.
The death row prisoner was sentenced to death for a triple murder carried out in 1994, but there was a logistical issue on the day of his execution.
Earlier this year, it was reported by USA Today that execution team members could only find one suitable vein in which to secure an IV for Carruthers.
This is meant to be the “backup line, which is required under the state’s lethal injection protocol,” according to the publication.
Following this attempt, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee handed Carruthers a one-year reprieve without explanation.
The harrowing incident was a reminder that things can go wrong, even if the majority of executions are completed.
How commonly do executions fail?
In the last 80 years, there have only been eight other occurrences where inmates survived execution attempts.
Of these eight, four were killed by a second attempt, three died on death row, while one is still alive and awaiting his fate.
Execution failures have not been confined to one method; from 2009 until May 2026, six people survived failed lethal injection attempts.
What is happening to Carruthers?
The inmate remains in Tennessee, as his lawyers have asked Governor Lee to halt all executions to review its protocol.
The Death Penalty Information Center states that 'attorneys from the Federal Public Defender’s Office filed a new federal lawsuit … to prevent Tennessee from attempting to execute Mr. Carruthers a second time.'
Attorneys have filed a class action lawsuit that asks Tennessee to rule that lethal injection violates the 8th Amendment after Carruthers' incident.
But this isn't the first disputed execution method.
Justice Burton wrote about the Willie Francis case in 1946, which centers around a black 16-year-old teenager who was convicted of murdering a sheriff, with the electric chair thought to be the most humane execution method at the time.
It took several switch flips and convulsions from Francis before he died.
Burton previously wrote: “Although the failure of the first attempt, in the present case was unintended, the reapplication of the electric current will be intentional … The present case demonstrates that, today, two separate applications are sufficiently ‘cruel and unusual’ to be prohibited.”
He added that when the state looks to execute someone, they must 'make sure that there (is) no failure.'