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Tennessee\u2019s failed attempt at executing Christa Pike despite administering two doses of a lethal drug in the state\u2019s death chamber has left her in critical condition, according to her attorneys.<\/p>\n
Pike, 50, was still in the hospital Thursday and her lawyers said they did not know her long-term chance for recovery. Tennessee went forward with the lethal injection Wednesday eight hours after it was originally scheduled to have taken place, a delay caused by a court ruling that temporarily paused the execution.<\/p>\n
What happened to Pike is \u201csingular and unparalleled,\u201d said Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. She said Pike was the only person who has remained alive after lethal injection drugs were administered in an execution.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about Pike\u2019s failed execution:<\/p>\n
An execution delayed, prolonged then failed<\/strong><\/p>\n Pike\u2019s execution was supposed to start at 10 a.m., but a federal appeals court stopped it about an hour before. The state appealed to the US Supreme Court, and it took eight hours for the conservative majority to overrule the lower court and let the lethal injection with the barbiturate pentobarbital to proceed.<\/p>\n About 90 minutes later, prison officials raised the curtain to the execution chamber, where media witnesses saw Pike strapped to a gurney with an IV in her arm. She said she was leaving the world with love.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m ready to be free,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a happy day.\u201d<\/p>\n She sang a song with her spiritual adviser, looked around and after several minutes said her arm was hurting or burning and asked if it was supposed to feel that way.<\/p>\n The curtain to the witnesses was closed then opened again around the time a second dose of pentobarbital would be administered. Pike appeared to lose consciousness, but she continued breathing and at times made snoring-like noises for the next hour.<\/p>\n Prison officials closed the curtain for good about 40 minutes after they first opened it. Pike\u2019s attorney demanded a telephone to ask a court to stop the execution.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unknown what was happening to Pike from the time the curtain closed for good at 8:06 p.m. until her attorney was told an ambulance was coming and witnesses were told to leave around 8:50 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cWe at this point do not know the ramifications of the chemical torture that she has endured,\u201d Pike\u2019s attorney Randy Spivey said.<\/p>\n Prison officials have not said when their attempt to execute Pike turned into life-saving efforts. They have only released a statement saying their lethal injection protocols were followed.<\/p>\n Tennessee governor stops December execution to investigate<\/strong><\/p>\n Within hours, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee canceled the state\u2019s last execution of 2026, scheduled for Dec. 3, and ordered a comprehensive third-party investigation into what went wrong with Pike.<\/p>\n \u201cIt needs to be done thoroughly and however long that takes, whatever process is required to make sure we get to the very end of it and all the questions are answered,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time Lee has ordered an investigation into capital punishment in Tennessee. Four years ago, an independent review found the state didn\u2019t follow its own execution rules and failed to properly test lethal injection drugs. That probe came after an April 2022 execution was stopped because of mishandling of drugs.<\/p>\n In May, Tennessee stopped the execution of Tony Carruthers after medical workers who got an IV into his right arm couldn\u2019t get a secondary IV line after trying his other arm, his left hand and his left foot, then failing to establish a central line. The governor ordered officials to wait at least a year before trying to execute Carruthers again.<\/p>\n Pike\u2019s lawyers called for the governor to now spare her life.<\/p>\n \u201cChrista has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty. The governor must commute Christa\u2019s sentence now,\u201d Spivey said.<\/p>\n Pike\u2019s lawyers warned of medical conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n Pike\u2019s legal team has previously told courts and Tennessee prison officials that she had medical conditions that would make death by lethal injection agonizing.<\/p>\n They said Pike suffered from a condition with elevated platelets known as thrombocytosis. They argued the condition could cause issues with blood clotting at injection sites or bleeding that could affect her lungs.<\/p>\n Medical workers also had trouble drawing blood from her, and setting an IV line is a harder process, her lawyers said. Spivey said he counted at least seven spots where needles were put into her left arm Wednesday and that at least one needle bent on an unsuccessful attempt.<\/p>\n Pike\u2019s biggest fear from being executed wasn\u2019t \u201ca fear of dying. It was a fear of a prolonged, painful, traumatic death. And that\u2019s what happened minus the death,\u201d said Stephen Ferrell, an attorney for Pike.<\/p>\n Pike killed 19-year-old job corps classmate<\/strong><\/p>\n Pike didn\u2019t deny she killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The two were classmates at Knoxville Job Corps.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend slashed Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim\u2019s body.<\/p>\n Pike said she was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at ages 11 and 17. Her lawyers said her death sentence was unfair because she was 18 at the time of the crime and the jury wasn\u2019t told about the abuse and how that might have affected her behavior.<\/p>\n Slemmer\u2019s mother witnessed the execution attempt and said her daughter didn\u2019t get justice.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched the whole thing. She was awake. She was laughing. She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn\u2019t work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn\u2019t work the second time so she\u2019s in the hospital and alive,\u201d May Martinez said by telephone.<\/p>\n Tadaryl Shipp, Pike\u2019s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body. He was 17 at the time of the killing and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n