Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, has survived an execution attempt after receiving two injections of a lethal drug.
Her lawyers said on Thursday that she was being treated in hospital, while Governor Bill Lee suspended executions for the rest of the year and ordered an independent review.
Pike’s case is not the first in which a prisoner has left the execution chamber alive in the United States. Previous failed attempts have ended with prisoners later executed, sometimes using a different method, or dying in custody before another attempt.
Surviving an execution attempt does not automatically overturn a death sentence. US courts have permitted authorities to try again, including in a 2016 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that a second attempt was not inherently barred by the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Here are five earlier cases and what followed.
Tony Carruthers: Two failed executions, one doctor
Tennessee halted its attempt to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21 2026, after staff were unable to establish the intravenous access required by the state’s lethal injection protocol.
The physician involved was Dr Mark Fowler, who was later selected to oversee Pike’s execution and administer her lethal injection, according to NPR. Tennessee-based broadcaster WVLT subsequently reported that the same doctor administered the injection that Pike survived.
In Carruthers’ case, officials said medical personnel secured a primary IV line but could not establish a backup. An attempt to insert a central line also failed.
Carruthers, sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of three people in 1994, was returned to his cell after officials spent more than an hour attempting the procedure, according to Reuters report.
Governor Bill Lee then granted him a one-year reprieve, postponing his execution without commuting his death sentence.
Kenneth Eugene Smith: Executed with nitrogen after surviving lethal injection
Alabama’s first attempt to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022 was abandoned after officials were unable to access a vein to administer the lethal drugs.
Smith spent about four hours strapped to a gurney as legal challenges played out and staff repeatedly tried to access his veins, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
His lawyers later argued that a second execution attempt would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but the US Supreme Court declined to stop it.
On January 25 2024, Alabama executed Smith, this time using nitrogen gas. Smith, 58, became the first person executed using the method, breathing pure nitrogen through a mask that deprived him of oxygen.
The execution lasted about 22 minutes, and Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes.
Alan Eugene Miller: A second attempt using a different method
Alabama’s attempt to execute Alan Eugene Miller by lethal injection in September 2022 failed after difficulties accessing his veins. A federal judge subsequently ordered the state to preserve evidence relating to the aborted procedure.
On September 26 2024, Alabama executed him using nitrogen gas, making him the second person put to death by that method.
Witnesses reported that he shook, pulled against his restraints and gasped for several minutes. Alabama’s corrections commissioner said the movements were involuntary and that the execution had proceeded as planned.
Miller had been sentenced to death for killing three men in workplace shootings in 1999.
Doyle Lee Hamm: A bloodied execution chamber and a deal preventing another attempt
Alabama abandoned its attempt to execute Doyle Lee Hamm in February 2018, after about two and a half hours of unsuccessful efforts to access a vein to administer the lethal drugs.
The procedure left Hamm, then 61, with at least 12 puncture wounds and the execution chamber bloodied, his lawyer, Columbia Law School professor Bernard Harcourt, said, according to a 2018 Reuters report. Medical personnel had tried to access veins in his groin and lower legs.
His lawyers had warned that terminal cancer and a history of intravenous drug use had severely compromised his veins. Alabama maintained that it could carry out the procedure, but stopped when officials determined the difficulties could not be resolved before the death warrant expired at midnight.
A federal judge subsequently ordered the state to preserve evidence, including Hamm’s clothing.
In March 2018, Hamm and Alabama reached a confidential settlement preventing further execution attempts, according to Harcourt.
Hamm remained on death row and died in November 2021 after suffering from cancer. It was the agreement, rather than an automatic legal exemption for surviving the first attempt, that prevented another execution attempt.
Romell Broom: Courts allowed another attempt, but he died before it could take place
Ohio stopped Romell Broom’s execution on September 15 2009, after staff spent about two hours trying unsuccessfully to access a vein to administer the lethal drugs.
Broom challenged the state’s right to try again, arguing that another attempt would violate constitutional protections against being punished twice for the same crime and against cruel and unusual punishment.
In 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected his challenge in a 4–3 decision, noting that no lethal drugs had been administered during the first attempt.
His execution was eventually rescheduled for March 2022 after a shortage of execution drugs forced another postponement.
But Broom died in custody on December 28 2020, aged 64, before another attempt could take place. Prison authorities said he was suspected to have died from complications of COVID-19, pending confirmation.
