Tennessee Woman Survives Attempted Execution

Tennessee Woman Survives Attempted Execution

A scheduled execution in Tennessee took an unexpected turn on Wednesday after a woman on death row remained alive despite receiving two doses of the lethal injection drug.

Christa Pike, 50, was taken to an outside medical facility after officials were unable to complete the execution, according to her lawyers and the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Pike had been scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at Knoxville Job Corps.

If completed, the execution would have made Pike the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.

Seven journalists who witnessed the procedure later described hearing Pike snore about 40 minutes after she had received two doses of pentobarbital.

The witnesses said Pike appeared to remain alive before corrections officials escorted them from the execution chamber.

Investigative journalist John North of WBIR, who witnessed the procedure, said it appeared that the execution had not gone as expected, adding that Pike was believed to still be alive when the journalists left.

Pike’s lawyers subsequently filed an emergency application asking the US Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that the procedure had subjected their client to unnecessary suffering and violated her protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed that Pike survived the state’s attempt to execute her and was transported by ambulance to an off-site medical facility.

The department said the chemical used in its execution protocol had consistently been effective and that the procedure did not permit officials to administer additional measures beyond what had already been carried out.

The development followed an intense legal battle over whether Tennessee could proceed with the execution.

An appeals court had earlier halted the lethal injection shortly before it was due to begin, saying more consideration was needed regarding Pike’s claims of childhood sexual abuse and whether those circumstances had been properly considered during sentencing.

Tennessee’s attorney general appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the stay amounted to an improper delay of the execution.

The Supreme Court later overturned the stay in an order signed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, allowing Tennessee to proceed.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, arguing that Pike should not be executed while her remaining legal challenges had yet to be properly considered.

Pike was 18 when she and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, killed Slemmer in January 1995.

Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was attempting to take her boyfriend away from her, and the pair lured Slemmer into a wooded area before attacking her.

Pike was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, while Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Pike has never denied her involvement in Slemmer’s death. In a statement included in her clemency petition, she said she had been a troubled 18-year-old and that it took her years to understand the full consequences of her actions.

Slemmer’s family has continued to mourn her death for more than three decades. Her mother, May Martinez, previously told the Associated Press that memories of her daughter remained a constant part of her life.

The failed execution has now added another extraordinary chapter to a case that has remained in the American public spotlight since Slemmer’s death in 1995.