Death row inmate Christa Pike was being treated at a hospital early Thursday after what appeared to be a horribly botched execution as the governor called to halt all future procedures for the year.
Pike, 50, was reported to be ‘alive’ on Wednesday night despite receiving two doses of lethal injection drugs during the execution attempt. The two doses is the maximum allowed under Tennessee law.
‘Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital,’ her lawyers said in a statement. ‘We have not been informed as to her condition.’
The killer had been scheduled to be executed for the brutal 1995 slaying of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a fit of jealous rage. She would have been the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.
But the procedure was delayed for hours after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order staying Pike’s execution ‘until further order of this court.’ The US Supreme Court overturned the order just before 6pm local time, clearing the way for Pike’s execution.
The failed execution attempt comes just four months after Tony Carruthers’ execution was called off in Tennessee, when Department of Corrections officials announced that medical personnel were unable to establish a backup IV line for Carruthers to be executed by lethal injection.
The same doctor that oversaw that execution was in charge of Pike’s procedure Wednesday night, WVLT reports.
Gov. Bill Lee has since announced he was pausing all executions planned for this year as he called for a comprehensive review into what went wrong.
‘Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,’ Lee said.
Pike (pictured in court in 2007) was still ‘alive and snoring’ after she received both syringes of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday night
She was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer (pictured) to death
Emergency responders were seen rushing to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution following the botched execution
Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville just before 7.30pm but somehow survived the attempted execution.
‘She’s alive and snoring,’ her attorney Kelley Gleason said in the aftermath.
Her attorneys later released a scathing statement that blasted the state for ignoring their warnings about the planned execution.
‘Tonight, the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,’ they wrote.
‘We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.’
Officials with the Tennessee Department of Corrections said they stand by the actions they took Wednesday night.
‘The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,’ department spokesperson Dorinda Carter told The Tennessean by email.
‘The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening,’ she noted.
Pike’s attorneys argued at a hearing in Knoxville that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution process
The mishap was just the latest in a string of events that delayed the enactment of her death sentence, which was originally scheduled for 10am on Wednesday
But it wasn’t until 7.26pm that the curtains into the execution chamber opened and Pike and her spiritual advisor were seen signing a song before the killer made her final remarks, media witnesses have described.
Moments later, Pike was heard saying her arm felt like it was about to burst open as she repeatedly kicked her feet.
By 7.46pm prison officials closed the curtain to the media room. They then raised the curtain again three minutes later.
At that time, Pike could be heard loudly snoring, and the curtain was closed again at 8.06pm.
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Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at about 8.53pm. At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area.
‘We have a lot of questions,’ one reporter said at an ensuing news conference. ‘And the [Tennessee Department of Corrections] has a lot of answers it needs to provide the public.’
Tori Gessner, a reporter at WKRN who has witnessed several executions, also emphasized: ‘Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.’
Amy Harwell has since driven an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
‘Ms Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,’ the attorneys wrote in the motion filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Another emergency motion was filed with the US Supreme Court, seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution. Lawyers claimed in that filing that Pike was in ‘unnecessary agony,’ and the botched execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
The motion further asserted that the Department of Correction should begin lifesaving measures.
‘Failure to provide such care constitutes deliberate indifference to legitimate, serious medical needs,’ her lawyers asserted.
Federal Judge Clifton L Corker has since declared that ‘medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion.’
Media witnesses said they left the execution chamber with a lot of questions
An ambulance is pictured arriving at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Wednesday night
The botched execution comes just four months after Tony Carruthers’ execution was called off
Pike’s attorneys have previously argued at an August hearing in Knoxville that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution process.
They also contended at the time that her veins are difficult to access, which could prolong the process and extend Pike’s suffering.
State prosecutors disputed those claims, with hematologist Dr Richard Mansour testifying that Pike’s recent medical history showed her veins were accessible.
He also noted that medical staff had successfully completed nearly all recent blood draws with just a single needle stick.
In the end, Senior Judge Mark Ward concluded that the evidence did not show Pike’s veins or blood disorder would create a substantial risk of severe pain.
Pike is pictured being escorted from Knox County Criminal Court on March 30, 1996, after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike’s attorneys had also previously asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her or to be hanged, the New York Post reported.
Having Pike be restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse, her lawyers had claimed, noting that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an Eighth Amendment violation will occur,’ Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.
When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.
She allegedly killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the rape.
Pike (left) was tried in March 1996. The jury swiftly convicted her and sentenced her to death
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right)
She was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death.
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Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, also helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.
The pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, and Peterson testified that he saw Pike also carve something into Slemmer’s head, police evidence showed.
Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Slemmer attempted to run for her life but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.
Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Peterson, then 18, served as a lookout for the couple during the deadly attack and was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.
Pike was scheduled to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She is pictured attending a virtual court hearing in August
Pike has not denied her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argued that a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teenager with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect.
In a clemency petition, the lawyers argued that Pike’s untreated mental illness and background made her unable to ‘put the brakes on.’ She had told police that she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in the frenzied attack.
‘I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,’ Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell further argued that more is known today about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an outlier.
Still, Governor Lee said he decided not to intervene in the case ‘after deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency and after a thorough review of the case.’
Following the ruling, Pike refused to select a last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on their last meal, according to The Tennessean. The state still planned to provide Pike with a meal before the procedure.
