State protocol had no rules for handling a second failed dose, reporter says
Tori Gessner, a news anchor for ABC affiliate WKRN, was among the journalists who witnessed Tennessee’s attempted execution of Christa Pike.
“At one point … she said, ‘my arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’” Gessner reported, before adding that “then she smiles really big.” Other journalists present described Pike snoring, exhaling loudly and gasping.
Pike, a Tennessee woman on death row convicted three decades ago of murdering her classmate Colleen Slemmer, survived the state’s effort to execute her by means of an unprecedented two lethal injections, prison officials said. The state had not attempted to execute a woman in 200 years.
Tennessee corrections officials administered a second lethal injection after the first failed, according to prison officials. WPLN health reporter Catherine Sweeney said the state’s protocol had no rules for what should happen should a dose fail to work a second time.
Pike was taken to an off-site medical facility for treatment. She reportedly remains alive.