Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all remaining scheduled executions for the rest of the year and ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred," after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday.
Her final words
Moments before the first injection was administered at 7:27pm local time, Pike said: "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love."
What happened during the execution attempt
Pike, 50, was due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, after the US Supreme Court overturned an earlier reprieve that had been ordered just an hour before the execution was originally scheduled. Despite receiving two full doses of pentobarbital under the state's protocol, Pike remained conscious throughout. Reporters who witnessed the attempt told NBC News she gasped, complained of pain, and kicked her feet with enough force to knock her sheets off the gurney. Her lawyers said the curtains in the viewing area were lowered twice during the process, and witnesses reported hearing her snoring loudly until the microphone was switched off at 8:53pm. She was ultimately transported to an off-site medical facility, with her legal team saying they had not been informed of her condition.
How experts have responded
The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks data on capital punishment without taking a formal position on it, called the incident "one of the worst botched executions in the modern death penalty era," adding: "This debacle was entirely preventable." Executive director Robin Maher said seven other people have previously survived medical complications in executions caused by difficulty accessing a vein, but that no one has remained alive after actually receiving the lethal drugs themselves, describing Pike's case as "singular and unparalleled." It marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, following a May attempt to execute Tony Carruthers that was called off after officials were unable to locate a suitable vein.
Background on her case
Pike is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row, and the state's last execution of a woman took place in 1820. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, 17 at the time, were convicted of torturing and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a Knoxville job training facility, in 1995, after prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was trying to take her boyfriend from her. A pentagram was carved into Slemmer's body, fuelling fears tied to the so-called "satanic panic" of the era. Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, while Pike was sentenced to death in 1996. Her supporters have argued her age at the time, documented mental illness, and history of severe sexual abuse should have been given greater weight.
The victim's mother's reaction
Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, travelled to Nashville hoping to witness the execution, describing the failed attempt to NBC News as "a mess," saying: "They went to try to execute her, and she didn't die." Martinez said Pike expressed no remorse during the process, saying nothing about what happened to her daughter.
The state's response
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction told UNILAD: "The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office. The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility."
