WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump expressed bewilderment with Tennessee's botched execution of Christa Pike, who survived a lethal injection that was meant to kill her as punishment for a homicide committed 31 years ago.
Trump weighed in on the subject during an Oct. 1 trip to Denton, Texas, after a reporter asked whether he plans to pursue any changes to capital punishment following the unsuccessful execution.
“Well, that was an interesting situation, but you’re going to have to speak to Tennessee about it, whether or not they’re going to go forward," Trump said after landing in Texas on Air Force One.
Trump turned to U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, the president's
former White House physician, who was standing next to Trump as part of the president's entourage for the trip.
"You know what that was about? An execution where the medication didn’t exactly work," Trump said to Jackson. "He would answer it better than anybody. How does that happen?"
"I don't know how that happens. It should be easy to do," Jackson responded.
"It shouldn't be very difficult," Trump said.
Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s attorneys, told reporters Pike is alive but in critical condition one day after two syringes of the drug pentobarbital failed to kill his client.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican and ally of Trump, called the situation "a tragedy" and announced a pause of the state's executions for the remainder of 2026, throwing the pending Dec. 3 execution date of another death row inmate, Gary Wayne Sutton, into question.
In 1995, then 18-year-old Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, then 17, and another friend lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to the woods in Knoxville, where Shipp and Pike tortured and killed her. Prosecutors said Pike suspected Slemmer was interested in Shipp.
It's not yet clear what led to the botched execution, but her attorney Stephen Ferrell said due to her blood condition and "difficult" veins, medical experts that testified on her behalf had predicted that the intravenous line could become dislodged or pierce through her veins, what's known as "infiltration."
The Tennessee Department of Corrections said it followed all protocols during the attempted execution. Officials are required to prepare one set of syringes for the lethal dose but have enough of the deadly drug on standby to build a second set of syringes if needed. Each set is made up of four syringes: one of sterile saline solution, two of 50 milliliters of pentobarbital and another of saline, according to the protocol.
Pike’s botched execution comes after Tennessee earlier this year failed to execute Tony Carruthers, who was sentenced to death for a 1994 triple murder, after execution staffer Dr. Mark Fowler was unable to place a central line into the death row prisoner.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Amanda Lee Myers of USA TODAY; Kirsten Fiscus, Evan Mealins and of the Tennessean
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump on botched Christa Pike execution: 'It shouldn't be very difficult'
