Christa Pike, who holds the only active death sentence among women on Tennessee's death row, did not die after prison staff delivered two doses of the execution drug. Attorneys for Pike disclosed Thursday that she was receiving hospital care, as Governor Bill Lee halted executions through the end of the year and directed that an independent review be carried out.
Instances where a condemned person has left a United States execution chamber still alive are documented in the historical record, and Pike's situation fits that pattern. When earlier attempts have not been completed, the outcomes have included the condemned person being put to death through an alternative procedure at a later date, or dying while still in custody ahead of any renewed effort.
Under established legal principles, a failed execution attempt leaves the original capital sentence intact and enforceable. Federal courts in the United States have left open the possibility of renewed execution attempts, a position reinforced by an Ohio Supreme Court decision from 2016 that found a second attempt does not automatically violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
On 21 May 2026, the planned execution of Tony Carruthers came to a halt after prison staff were unable to insert the intravenous line that the state's lethal injection procedure requires. Dr. Mark Fowler, the physician at the centre of that case, was subsequently appointed to carry out Pike's execution, a role that placed him in charge of delivering the lethal injection. According to those briefed on the matter, medical staff working on Carruthers managed to place one intravenous line but were unable to secure a second. Placing a central line also proved unsuccessful.
Facing a 1994 conviction tied to the abduction and killing of three people, Carruthers was returned to his cell after prison staff spent more than an hour unable to carry out the lethal injection procedure. A one-year reprieve issued by Governor Bill Lee put the execution on hold while leaving the death sentence itself intact.
A needle could not be placed into a viable vein when Kenneth Eugene Smith faced lethal injection in Alabama in 2022, prompting the procedure to be called off before it was completed. Bound to a gurney for roughly four hours, Smith waited as attorneys pursued last-minute legal remedies and medical personnel made repeated attempts to establish intravenous access, the Death Penalty Information Center reported. Attorneys for Smith subsequently contended that subjecting him to a second lethal procedure would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, yet the nation's highest court chose not to intervene.
Alabama carried out Smith's execution on January 25, 2024, using nitrogen gas delivered through a face mask that cut off his oxygen supply — the first time this approach had been applied in carrying out a death sentence. Smith was 58 years old at the time.
A scheduled lethal injection for Alan Eugene Miller in September 2022 could not be completed after medical staff were unable to establish adequate vein access. Following the halted procedure, a federal judge issued a directive requiring the state to keep all related evidence intact. Those present described Miller trembling, straining against his restraints, and struggling to breathe over the course of several minutes. The Alabama corrections commissioner characterised the physical movements observed during the procedure as involuntary and stated that the lethal injection process had unfolded in line with the department's protocol.
The procedure to carry out Doyle Lee Hamm's execution was called off in February 2018, following roughly two and a half hours during which medical personnel were unable to establish intravenous access for delivery of the lethal injection drugs. Attorney Bernard Harcourt, a law professor at Columbia University, stated that the process left Hamm — who was 61 at the time — with no fewer than a dozen puncture wounds, and that blood was visible throughout the execution chamber, as reported by a news outlet. Defence attorneys had raised the possibility that terminal cancer combined with a prior history of intravenous drug use had left his veins in a compromised state.
The procedure was under way when it came to a halt after those overseeing it determined that the obstacles could not be resolved within the time remaining before the death warrant lapsed at midnight. A private settlement between Hamm and Alabama, finalised in March 2018, put a stop to any further attempts at carrying out the execution, Harcourt noted. What brought the matter to a close was a negotiated agreement between the parties, not any legal bar rooted in constitutional or statutory protection against carrying out an execution twice.
Attempts to establish intravenous access for Romell Broom stretched across roughly two hours on September 15, 2009, before Ohio prison staff abandoned the effort and the scheduled execution was called off. His legal team put forward a constitutional challenge to any renewed attempt, contending that a second effort would run afoul of double jeopardy protections as well as the Eighth Amendment's bar on cruel and unusual punishment. A split ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court — four justices in favour, three opposed — turned away his appeal that year, with the majority pointing out that no lethal drugs had actually been delivered during the earlier attempt.
A supply problem with lethal injection drugs pushed the execution date back further, with March 2022 ultimately set as the new date for the execution to proceed. Broom was 64 years old when he died while held in state custody on 28 December 2020, with no further execution attempt having taken place by that point. Correctional authorities indicated that COVID-19 complications were the likely cause of death, though formal confirmation remained outstanding at the time.
