Tennessee death row inmate survives two-dose lethal injection and is hospitalized

Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital administered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Wednesday evening and was transported to an off-site medical facility after the attempted lethal injection failed to kill her.

The viewing curtain was closed for the first time at 7:46pm local time and raised three minutes later, when witnesses said Pike could be heard snoring. The curtain was closed again at 8:06pm. Witnesses continued to hear Pike snoring until the microphone was switched off at about 8:53pm, at which point media witnesses were asked to leave the area. Emergency vehicles were seen coming and going from the prison. Pike’s lawyer said in an emergency motion that she had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. An attorney later told the BBC that Pike was being provided life-saving measures in hospital.

“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,” Pike’s legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean. Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said the agency followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol. She said the lethal injection chemical has consistently been effective and that the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out. District Judge Clifton L Corker issued a ruling noting that medical personnel had begun to administer care as requested in the motion.

Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine retained by Pike’s legal team, said Pike likely never achieved a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause apnoea and cardiovascular failure. He said it is very possible Pike will have a brain injury as a consequence of the delay in beginning resuscitation.

A day of legal whiplash

Pike had initially been scheduled to die on Wednesday morning, but the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay so the court could consider whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered during sentencing. The US Supreme Court overturned the stay later that day. The conservative majority did not explain the decision, and the three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that vacating the stay unnecessarily prevents the appeals court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim. Tennessee’s attorney general had argued that delaying the execution traumatised the family of Pike’s victim and rewarded what it called abusive delay tactics. The state’s governor denied a clemency request from Pike this week.

The 1995 murder

Pike was 18 at the time of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training facility in Knoxville. She committed the killing with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996. The murder created a media frenzy in Knoxville after Slemmer was found with an inverted pentagram carved into her chest, according to BBC News reporting. Pike has denied carving the pentagram herself. Two other residents at the camp testified at trial that Pike bragged about the murder and showed them a piece of Slemmer’s skull. Before the killing, Pike had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend, the BBC reported.

Abuse, illness, and clemency

Pike’s legal team argued that the jury did not get to weigh mitigating evidence of her documented childhood sexual abuse before sentencing her to death. The defence said Tennessee argued for years in court that Pike lied about being sexually abused as a child, but at a recent hearing about her execution method, the state said it did not dispute that she had suffered sexual abuse and rape. Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder after the killing. In her clemency petition, Pike said she intended to beat Slemmer, not kill her, but was unable to put the brakes on. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, expressed support for the execution proceeding. Martinez told the Associated Press that a group helped raise funds for her and her husband to travel from Florida to witness the execution.

A rare execution that wasn’t

Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the US, about 1% of all executions, and 1,663 men have been executed, according to the center.