Christa Pike is currently in hospital after the lethal injection that was supposed to complete her death sentence failed to execute her.Her lawyers have said that the execution ‘failed’ and they requested ‘immediate medical care’ for her after she received her lethal injection but continued to breathe and had a heartbeat.This was granted and she was taken by ambulance from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to hospital, and while Pike is receiving treatment she remains a woman who was sentenced to death.As for what happens next, there won’t be another execution in short order as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all other scheduled executions in the state for the rest of the year and ordered ‘a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred’.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that they ‘followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office’ and said that the lethal injection chemical ‘has consistently been effective’ for death penalties.They added: “The protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”n the short-term it’s a stay of execution for the 50-year-old as there cannot be a second attempt in the near future, though her sentence is still death.Pike is the first person to be administered the two doses of lethal injection and survive, there is no protocol for what happens in that instance.Earlier this year Tennessee death row inmate Tony Carruthers had his execution called off after the medical team couldn’t find a suitable second vein to attach a backup IV line to, which is required under the protocol.n his case his execution was officially postponed for a year.