Christa Pike, a death row inmate in the US state of Tennessee, has survived an execution attempt after officials administered two doses of lethal injection on her.
Pike, 50, was taken to a hospital after the two doses of
pentobarbital failed to kill her at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
in Nashville on Wednesday.
Her lawyers filed an emergency motion during the execution,
saying Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly
snoring.
Journalists present during the execution said Pike
complained to her spiritual adviser during the procedure that the vein in her
arm felt as though it was “about to burst open”.
Another witness described hearing a sound as though Pike was
“almost choking”.
The execution began at about 8pm local time on Wednesday, or
1am on Thursday in Nigeria.
Officials administered two syringes of pentobarbital, with
the curtain to the witness room closed twice during the procedure. Media
witnesses were also asked to leave at some point.
Tennessee’s execution protocol provides for a second set of
drug syringes if an inmate does not die after the first set. However, the
protocol does not specify what should happen if the inmate remains alive after
the second dose.
Bill Lee, Tennessee governor, said he had ordered “a
comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred”.
He also said the state’s remaining scheduled execution for
the year would not proceed as planned.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said officials
followed the state’s approved execution protocol.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step
of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney
General’s Office,” Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the department, said.
She said the lethal injection chemical specified in the
protocol “has consistently been effective” and that the protocol did not allow
for additional procedures beyond those carried out.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of
Colleen Slemmer, 19, in 1995.
She was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp,
beat and tortured Slemmer before killing her. The three had met at a
job-training camp for troubled teenagers.
Pike had accused Slemmer of insulting her and attempting to
take her boyfriend.
Slemmer’s murder attracted widespread media attention in
Knoxville after an inverted pentagram was found carved into her chest. Pike has
denied carving the symbol.
In a clemency petition, Pike said she intended to beat
Slemmer but did not mean to kill her.
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous
years to even realise the gravity of what I’d done,” she said.
May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, had supported Pike’s
execution. She has described the events as “a mess”.
Pike’s execution was preceded by a last-minute legal battle,
which culminated in the US Supreme Court allowing the lethal injection to
proceed.
The failed execution is the second in Tennessee this year to
be disrupted.
In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted
of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, was postponed after officials
were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal drug.
Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in
1976, only 18 women have been executed in the country, compared with 1,663 men.
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