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Tennessee governor reveals what happens next after Christa Pike survives two doses of lethal injection
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has revealed the next steps after officials failed to execute Christa Pike, who remained alive after being administered two lethal injections.
Pike, 50, was due to die on Wednesday, September 30, for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, however, the execution was halted after Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital.
Her attorneys said Pike was still alive and loudly snoring following the attempted execution before she was taken from prison by ambulance to a hospital, claiming they had not initially been informed of her condition.
Tennessee governor issues response
In response, Gov. Lee announced that the state's remaining scheduled execution for the year would not go ahead while officials investigate what happened, with Lee claiming he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred”.
He added: “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.”
The Tennessee Department of Correction, meanwhile, insisted that officials had followed the established procedure, announcing in a statement that the department had “followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office.”
Tennessee's execution protocol provides for a second set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” following the initial dose, but the protocol apparently does not specify what should happen if an inmate remains alive after the second dose.
Media witnesses were observing the execution from a separate room when curtains to the execution chamber were opened, with Pike seen strapped to a gurney and delivered what were intended to be her final words.
“I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” she stated, describing herself as being at peace, but Pike did not lose consciousness as had been expected.
At one point, she reportedly lifted her head and asked prison officials whether her arm was supposed to feel the way it did. It was unclear exactly what she was referring to.
Witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered, yet Pike could still be heard snoring behind the closed curtain.
Her lawyers subsequently filed an emergency motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court, arguing that Pike was experiencing “unnecessary agony” and that the execution was violating her constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Pike's brutal murder of Slemmer
Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted over the murder of Slemmer, their classmate at a Job Corps facility in Knoxville, with prosecutors claiming Pike believed Slemmer was attempting to take her boyfriend and lured her to her death.
Pike attacked Slemmer with a box cutter before beating her with a large piece of asphalt, before Shipp engraved a satanic symbol into her, and a piece of her skull was removed.
Shipp was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, while Pike received the death penalty.
Pike has contested her conviction on more than one occasion, with her clemency petition claiming that she had intended to fight Slemmer rather than kill her, but that the attack escalated when she couldn't “put the brakes on.”
Pike's execution had originally been scheduled for 10AM on Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but just an hour before it was due to begin, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay.
The court said it required additional time to consider arguments surrounding whether Pike's allegations of childhood sexual abuse had been properly considered during her sentencing.
The Tennessee Attorney General's Office appealed to the US Supreme Court, arguing that stopping the execution at such a late stage had caused further trauma for Slemmer's family and rewarded what it described as “abusive delay tactics” by Pike's lawyers, before the Supreme Court confirmed the execution should proceed as initially planned.
Now, following Pike's failed execution, Gov. Lee has ordered an independent review to establish exactly why the procedure failed, while Tennessee's remaining scheduled execution this year has been put on hold.