Witnesses to Christa Pike’s failed execution said the convicted killer raised her head after a second dose of lethal drugs and asked whether the burning pain she felt was normal.
Pike, who was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries, remained alive after receiving two rounds of the powerful sedative pentobarbital on Wednesday. Reporters who witnessed the procedure said they had never seen an execution unfold in such a way.
“They went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end. It was very ragged,” Catherine Sweeney of WPLN said during a briefing after the execution was suspended. “At one point, she lifted her head and looked around. She said there was a spot that was burning and hurting and asked if that was normal.”
“None of that was normal,” Sweeney added.
Pike, 50, had been strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution shortly before 7:30 p.m. CDT. The execution began about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a stay that had temporarily delayed it.
“When they told us to leave at 8:53, Christa Pike was still breathing,” Sweeney recalled. “They administered two separate rounds of pentobarbital, which I have never seen before. The protocol does say a second round should be given if the person is still alive.”
“I covered all of the executions last year and most of those this year. We have not seen anything like it,” she said.
Tennessee’s execution rules instruct officials to use a second set of syringes if an inmate has not died following the initial injection. The protocol, however, does not explain what should happen if the person remains alive after the second round.
Death penalty opponents sharply criticized the Tennessee Department of Corrections over its handling of the lethal injection.
“The state of Tennessee has shown the world it cannot be trusted to carry out capital punishment in a way that upholds human dignity and the rule of law. This has to stop now,” Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said in a statement to USA Today.
Several other witnesses at the Nashville prison said Pike complained of a “throbbing” sensation in her arm during the procedure.
WKRN reporter Tori Gessner said she heard Pike say, “My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing.”
Pike was later transported to a nearby hospital, where her attorneys said she was receiving “life-saving measures.”
Her condition remained unclear Thursday morning. A medical expert retained by Pike’s legal team said she may have suffered a brain injury.
“It’s very possible that, as a consequence of the delay in beginning resuscitation, she will have a brain injury,” Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor at Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC.
Before the execution was due to take place, Pike delivered final remarks in which she said she would leave the world in the same way she had spent much of her life: “in love,” according to Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler.
“She said she had love for the people who were out here hating on her,” Chandler said.
Pike reportedly ended her statement by saying, “I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free.” She also spoke about celebrating her freedom before concluding, “This is a happy day.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and paused the state’s remaining scheduled execution for the year.
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but effective,” Lee said.
Pike was on death row for a heinous 1995 crime in which she lured a romantic rival into a wooded area and tortured her with a box cutter – carving a pentagram into her chest – before smashing her head with a piece of asphalt, claiming a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir.
With Post wires