Christa Pike was reportedly still alive and snoring after receiving two doses of lethal-injection drugs during a troubled execution on Wednesday night.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled to die at 10 a.m. for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was killed in what prosecutors described as a jealous rage.
The execution was delayed for several hours after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a stay, ordering that it be halted “until further order of this court.”
The US Supreme Court lifted the stay shortly before 6 p.m. local time, allowing Tennessee officials to proceed. Pike’s execution marked the state’s first execution of a woman in more than two centuries.
She was given two syringes of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly before 7:30 p.m. However, she was still breathing and reportedly alive as of 9 p.m., according to The Tennessean.
“She’s alive and snoring,” attorney Kelley Gleason said. She explained that the information came from another member of Pike’s legal team, Randy Spivey, who was inside the death chamber.
Late Wednesday night, officials had not clarified whether Pike remained alive or had died following the apparent failure of the execution procedure.
An ambulance and other emergency vehicles were later seen arriving at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Pike, pictured in court in 2007, was reportedly still “alive and snoring” after receiving both syringes of lethal-injection drugs Wednesday night
She was convicted in March 1996, at age 18, for the brutal stabbing and beating death of Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, pictured
Emergency responders were seen arriving at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the troubled execution
Witnesses said the curtains to the execution chamber opened at 7:26 p.m. Pike sang with her spiritual adviser before delivering her final statement.
Shortly afterward, Pike was heard saying that her arm felt as though it were about to burst.
The curtains closed at 7:46 p.m., with witnesses reportedly hearing Pike snore. Those witnesses were removed from the room shortly before 9 p.m.
“We have a lot of questions,” one reporter said during a news conference. “And the [Tennessee Department of Corrections] has a lot of answers it needs to provide the public.”
Tori Gessner, a WKRN reporter who has witnessed multiple executions, said the events were highly unusual. “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all,” she said.
Pike’s attorney Amy Harwell was also pursuing emergency relief before the Tennessee Supreme Court.
“Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,” her attorneys wrote in an emergency motion filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The filing came about a month after Pike’s lawyers argued during a Knoxville hearing that her thrombocytosis could heighten the risk of clotting and pain during the execution.
They also warned that Pike’s veins were difficult to access, raising concerns that the procedure could be prolonged and increase her suffering.
Pike’s attorneys argued at a hearing in Knoxville that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution process
State prosecutors disputed those claims, with hematologist Dr Richard Mansour testifying that Pike’s recent medical history showed her veins were accessible.
He also noted that medical staff had successfully completed nearly all recent blood draws with just a single needle stick.
In the end, Senior Judge Mark Ward concluded that the evidence did not show Pike’s veins or blood disorder would create a substantial risk of severe pain.
Pike’s attorneys had also previously asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her or to be hanged, the New York Post reported.
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Having Pike be restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse, her lawyers had claimed, noting that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an Eighth Amendment violation will occur,’ Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.
When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.
She allegedly killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the rape.
Pike is pictured being escorted from Knox County Criminal Court on March 30, 1996, after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right)
Pike was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death.
She initially demanded she be spared a lethal injection because of her Buddhist beliefs. Earlier this month, she asked for an all-female firing squad to carry out her killing, with her lawyers citing the abuse she experienced as a child.
Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, also helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.
The pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, and Peterson testified that he saw Pike also carve something into Slemmer’s head, police evidence showed.
Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Slemmer attempted to run for her life but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.
Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Peterson, then 18, served as a lookout for the couple during the deadly attack and was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.
Pike was scheduled to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She is pictured attending a virtual court hearing in August
An ambulance is pictured arriving at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Wednesday night
Pike has not denied her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argued that a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teenager with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect.
In a clemency petition, the lawyers argued that Pike’s untreated mental illness and background made her unable to ‘put the brakes on.’ She had told police that she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in the frenzied attack.
‘I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,’ Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell further argued that more is known today about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an outlier.
Still, Governor Bill Lee said he decided not to intervene in the case ‘after deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency and after a thorough review of the case.’
Following the ruling, Pike refused to select a last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on their last meal, according to The Tennessean. The state still planned to provide Pike with a meal before the procedure.