Krista Pike, who became a subject of controversy after an attempt to carry out the death penalty via lethal injection failed in Tennessee, United States, has been transferred to a hospital, her attorneys said. According to one of her lawyers, Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital and is receiving life-sustaining treatment at the hospital. Details are emerging about what went wrong during the execution process. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Kalyn Slimm, and this sentence has been legally contested up until the final moments.
This incident marks the second failed execution in Tennessee this year. In May, authorities postponed the lethal injection procedure for Tony Carders, convicted in 1994 for kidnapping and the murder of three people, after the intravenous line for administering the lethal drugs could not be found. Since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the ban on the death penalty in 1976, 1,683 individuals have been executed in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
Public support for the death penalty in the U.S. has declined recently and is currently at its lowest in 50 years. A recent Gallup poll showed that 52 percent of Americans supported the death penalty in 2025. Meanwhile, in 2014, Oklahoma briefly suspended the use of lethal injection due to serious errors in administering the execution drugs.
Critics have pointed out that supply issues with the drugs used in lethal injections, alongside several controversial executions, raise serious humanitarian concerns. Legal challenges often focus on the standards of drug use, arguing that the process causes unnecessary pain and suffering. They warn these practices risk violating the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
