US4 min(s) read
Christa Pike's horrific question as lethal injection drugs were administered during failed execution attempt
.jpg_I4Ebof?tr=cr-0.338.2730.3068,f-webp,q-70,w-100)
Christa Pike reportedly uttered one horrific question during a failed attempt to execute her, before the attempts halted and she was taken to hospital.
Pike, who was set to become the first woman in Tennessee to be executed in 200 years, was initially granted a stay of execution before the Supreme Court stepped in and ruled that the planned execution could go ahead.
Christa Pike’s execution did not go as planned
Pike, who is now 50, was found guilty of the horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995 and sentenced to death.
Ever since then, she has been on death row awaiting her sentence, which was set to be carried out yesterday.
However, as the fateful hour approached, she was granted a stay of execution, meaning that she would have thought she’d live another day.
That was before the Supreme Court shockingly stepped in to rule that she could be executed.
It didn’t go to plan.
According to her lawyers, two syringes of lethal injection drugs were administered, but Pike did not die.
She was then taken to hospital, where she remains in an unknown condition.
The scene in the execution room has been described
There were a number of witnesses allowed in the execution chambers, including journalists, the execution team, and the relatives of Pike’s victim.
One of those relatives, Colleen Slemmer’s mother May Martinez, described the whole thing as ‘a mess’.
She said: “They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die.”
Martinez also criticized the Department of Corrections for their handling of the process.
“They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left,” she said.
“We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner,
“And he said that it didn’t work, that it didn’t work, and she’s on her way to the hospital.”
In short, she said ‘they f***ed up’.
Journalist describes how Pike acted during the failed execution
Another person present at the botched execution was WKRN Nashville journalist Tori Gessner, who has so far seen five executions in the state of Tennessee.
She said: “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.”
Gessner went on to describe the scene in the chamber as Pike was administered the lethal injection drugs.
She reported that at around 7:34pm Pike said: “My arm feels like it is about to burst open.”
Then came the chilling questions: “Does this happen like that?”
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said that the state 'followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office’ and continued that 'the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.’
In a counter-statement, Pike’s lawyers said “Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.”
The execution warrant for Pike expired at midnight local time, and the state has yet to announce whether it will pursue another execution, and - if so - at what time.
Lethal injection is a controversial execution method
Even within those who support the death penalty in the USA, lethal injection is a controversial method.
Some prisoners in recent times have even asked to be killed by a firing squad, and Pike herself had asked not to receive it.
Now, it seems that her fears beforehand were justified.
A combination of drugs are administered to the prisoner in order, but if things don’t go to plan, it can result in a long and often painful death.
The process itself from start to finish is supposed to be over quickly, but reports have found that not to be the case in several executions.
Data from the Death Penalty Information Center was particularly damning, claiming that 270 executions have been botched, with the lethal injection providing the highest rate of those.