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Witnesses reveal what happened to Christa Pike during failed execution after she survived two lethal injections
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Media witnesses have shared what really happened to death row inmate Christa Pike after two failed execution attempts on Wednesday evening (September 30).
The 50-year-old was in line to become the first woman in over 200 years to be executed in Tennessee, before a couple of botched attempts at administering the lethal injection.
Yesterday, Pike was granted a stay of execution just minutes before her scheduled execution time, before the Supreme Court ruled that the killing could go ahead.
But things didn't go to plan, as the mother of Pike's victim, Colleen Slemmer, described it as 'a mess'.
“They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die,” Slemmer's mom said, adding: “We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner.
“He said that it didn’t work, that it didn’t work, and she’s on her way to the hospital.”
Pike's attorneys say she is being treated in a hospital, unsure of her condition, as a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Corrections confirmed she was ’transported to an off-site medical facility’.
Now, media witnesses have shared what really happened to Pike during the harrowing process.
Media witnesses recall botched execution attempts
They admitted that curtains to the execution chamber were closed on numerous occasions so that they could only hear sounds.
According to WPLN reporter Catherine Sweeney, Pike was 'still breathing' after two rounds of the lethal injection were administered, calling it 'very ragged'.
She told CNN: "She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point.
"She said there was a spot that was burning and hurting, and asked if that was normal - none of it was normal."
"When the curtains were open, she was kind of inconsistently going in and out of snores and silence," WKRN Anchor Tori Gessner explained.
She went on: "When the curtains closed for the final time at 8:05, we could consistently hear her snoring, and then it kind of developed into a snore-squeak, and then a snore; even at 8:53 when the microphone was cut off, we could still hear snoring."
Damon Lawrence, a news reporter for Roane County, said that she delivered last words before the failed execution attempts.
"The warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words. She said, 'I do.' He told her to proceed. She said, 'I just want to say that I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love,'" he explained.
Lawrence recalled: "She said she loves the people who are angry with her, just as much as she loves the people who are on her side. She said, 'I'm at peace and I'm ready to go.'"
Statement from prison officials
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 when that will be.
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 relatives of Pike’s victim.
One of those was Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez.
She said: “They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die.”
Martinez then 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’.