On September 30, Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike survived injection of two lethal doses of pentobarbital and sustained arm burns. She recovered at a Nashville hospital.
The failed execution prompted debate over whether a second execution attempt would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has previously ruled in cases involving execution failures, including a case allowing a second attempt after someone survived electrocution due to mechanical malfunction.
The Pike case highlighted unresolved constitutional questions, including how courts should analyze the issue if a state ignored warnings that an execution attempt might fail.