Christa Pike reportedly remains alive after two injections in Tennessee execution

Lawyers cite media witnesses in emergency motion to halt proceeding

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was reportedly still alive Wednesday night after receiving two injections, each of which were expected to be lethal, according to her lawyers and media witnesses, who said the execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville did not go as planned. Pike, 50, would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries and the only person in the modern era executed for a crime committed at age 18.

Media witnesses told reporters at a press conference that executioners administered two single doses of pentobarbital to Pike during the execution and that she was still breathing when they were escorted from the witness chamber at 8:53 p.m. Prison officials initially opened the curtain to the witness chamber at 7:26 p.m., which was followed by Pike giving her last statement. At 7:34 p.m., she reported pain in her arm, according to the media witnesses. Prison officials closed the curtain at 7:46 p.m. but opened it again three minutes later. Pike was heard snoring loudly. The curtains were closed for the last time at 8:05 p.m. The media witnesses reported they could hear her breathing and snoring until they were escorted from the witness chamber. Ambulances and emergency services were seen during the press conference arriving at the prison. UPI has asked the Tennessee Department of Correction for confirmation.

Pike’s lawyers Wednesday night filed a motion seeking to halt her execution, citing the media witnesses who said their client was still alive, NBC News reported.

The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for her to be put to death for the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19. Pike was initially scheduled to be killed at 10 a.m. Wednesday, but her execution was delayed due to a last-minute stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which was overturned by a divided Supreme Court. The high court overturned the last-minute reprieve granted by the appeals court about an hour before the planned execution. The Tennessee attorney general asked the Supreme Court to vacate the stay. Justice Brett Kavanaugh referred the request to the full court, which granted it without an explanation from the majority. The court’s three liberal justices, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.

The Sixth Circuit had issued its stay saying it needed to review Pike’s lawyers’ claims. “The interests of justice and the finality of Pike’s impending execution compel the entry of a short stay of execution in order to properly analyze the parties’ fully briefed arguments and resolve the issues on the merits,” Judge Jane B. Stranch wrote, joined by Judge Karen Moore.

Pike, along with her then-boyfriend and another young woman, tortured and killed Slemmer in 1995. Pike, who was 18, is the only one of the three with a death sentence. The boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was ineligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the crime. The other woman, Shadolla Peterson, testified against Pike and Shipp and was given probation.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the Supreme Court had said they would not stop Pike’s execution. Her lawyers argued that her trial lawyers had failed to adequately present her history of child sexual abuse and neglect. From ages 2 to 5, Pike was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend. At age 11, she was raped by a neighbor. The neighbor pleaded no contest to related charges and served no prison time. He was allowed to return home, close to Pike’s home. When she was 17, she was assaulted and raped again by a stranger in North Carolina who was never caught.

The botched execution comes after Tennessee called off the execution of Tony Carruthers on May 21 after failing to establish an intravenous line to administer the lethal injection.

“Christa Pike’s status remains unclear following the attempted execution,” the Catholic Mobilizing Network, which calls for the abolition of the death penalty, said in a social media statement late Wednesday. “Lord, have mercy. Be near to Christa and all who are waiting and praying tonight.”