Tennessee Woman Survives Failed Execution
A scheduled execution in Tennessee took an unexpected turn on Wednesday after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug.
Pike, 50, was due to be executed for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, but officials were unable to complete the procedure.
The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed that Pike survived the execution attempt and was taken by ambulance to an off-site medical facility.
Seven journalists who witnessed the procedure said they heard Pike snoring about 40 minutes after the drugs were administered.
The witnesses were later escorted from the execution chamber. John North, an investigative journalist with WBIR, said Pike appeared to still be alive when the journalists left the facility.
Pike’s lawyers subsequently filed an emergency application with the US Supreme Court, arguing that the failed execution subjected their client to unnecessary suffering and violated her constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said the lethal injection chemical used in its execution protocol had consistently been effective. It added that the protocol did not permit officials to carry out additional procedures beyond those already performed.
The development followed a last-minute legal battle over Pike’s execution.
An appeals court had temporarily halted the lethal injection shortly before it was scheduled to begin, saying more consideration was needed over Pike’s claims of childhood sexual abuse and whether those circumstances had been properly considered during her sentencing.
Tennessee’s attorney general appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the stay amounted to an improper delay.
The Supreme Court later overturned the stay in an order signed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, allowing the execution to proceed.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing that Pike’s remaining legal challenges should be considered before the state proceeded with her execution.
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 Shipp away from her. 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 acknowledged her involvement in Slemmer’s death. In a statement submitted with her clemency petition, she said she was a troubled teenager at the time and that it took years for her to fully understand the consequences of her actions.
The failed execution has now added a new development to a case that has remained in the public spotlight for more than three decades.
