New details have emerged about the botched execution of 50-year-old inmate Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Globalinfo.az reports, citing Qafqazinfo, that 69-year-old doctor Mark Fowler, who oversaw the scandalous procedure on September 30, spoke about it for the first time to the publication Intelligencer.
Responding to sharp public criticism, doctor Mark Fowler came out in his own defence. Fowler admitted that they had realised belatedly that the lethal injections had been administered not into a vein but into subcutaneous tissue. He said that, given the risk of the inmate entering a persistent vegetative state, he demanded that the execution be halted and emergency medical assistance be called.
Nevertheless, the doctor insisted that Pike must be executed again: “This is important to give the mother of Collin Slemmer, who was killed in 1995, a sense of justice.”
Fowler also called on Tennessee to change its execution protocol and return to the old three-drug method.
According to court documents, the execution team spent about an hour searching for a usable vein in Pike’s arm and administered about 10 injections. Two full doses of pentobarbital were given, but the inmate did not die.
The investigation established that the needles had been inserted not into the bloodstream but into subcutaneous tissue. Under the protocol, a third dose is prohibited, so the procedure was halted and the inmate was taken to hospital in a coma.
Pike, who was placed on a ventilator and returned to prison on October 10, described that night: “Since that night there has not been a single moment when I did not feel pain. My body, my arms, my hands and my throat ache severely, and I have difficulty speaking. I have spent 28 years in a solitary cell, but the incompetence shown by the execution team has wounded me deeply.”
Note that after the failed procedure, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all executions in the state until the end of 2026. At the same time, the commissioner of the Department of Correction resigned.
It should be added that Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the murder of her 19-year-old classmate Collin Slemmer in 1995, when she was 18, and she is the only woman awaiting execution in Tennessee. Her death sentence currently remains in force.
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