Christa Pike, a death row inmate set to be executed on Wednesday, survived two lethal injections and is being treated at a hospital, according to reports. Pike, who was convicted of murdering a schoolmate three decades ago, would have been the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike was administered two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at 7.30 pm. However, she did not lose consciousness and had a heartbeat.
According to witnesses, after the deadly injection, Pike was audibly breathing and moaning as she kicked her bedsheet while the belt across her chest moved. An hour later, her lawyers said she was "still alive and snoring."
Witnesses described the process, stating how the curtains to the death chamber were opened by 7.26 pm. Pike and her spiritual advisor were seen singing a song before the killer made her final remarks. Moments later, Pike was heard saying her arm felt like it was about to burst open as she repeatedly kicked her feet.
By 7.46 pm 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 8.06 pm. She was heard snoring behind closed curtains until the microphone was cut off at about 8.53 pm.
Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted, along with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, for beating, torturing and killing a 19-year-old girl, Colleen Slemmer, at a job training camp for troubled teens. She had spent the last three decades behind bars.
Her attorneys later released a statement slamming the state for ignoring their warnings about the planned execution. '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,” the statement read.
Reports quoting witnesses said the 50-year-old was snoring and speaking about pain. She also repeatedly kicked her feet, knocking the sheets. There was noise coming from inside the chamber.
Tennessee Department of Correction said they couldn’t administer more than two doses of injections. “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.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that a lawful execution has ended up botched in the United States. Last May, triple-murderer Tony Carruthers also survived a botched lethal injection when prison officials once again failed to find a vein, with the execution later called off.
