Death row killer Christa Pike 'still alive' after Tennessee lethal injection attempt, say witnesses
Warning: This article contains information which some readers may find distressing.
Tennessee officials were forced to stop the execution of Christa Gail Pike partway through on Wednesday, 30 September, according to media witnesses present at the scene.
Her death sentence had briefly looked uncertain after an appeals court intervened just an hour before the lethal injection was due to begin - only for the Supreme Court to step in and reverse that decision.
Officials appeared to administer two doses of the drug pentobarbital - but more than 40 minutes after the second dose, Pike was reportedly still awake and snoring.
'None of it was normal'
WPLN reporter Catherine Sweeney, who was present as a media witness, recalled: "They went through two rounds and she was still breathing at the end. It was very ragged. She lifted her head up and she was looking around at one point.
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READ MORE: Full timeline of Christa Pike case as she's hospitalised after surviving attempted execution
"She said that there was a spot burning and hurting and asked if that was normal. None of it was normal."
'We could still hear snoring'
WKRN anchor Tori Gessner also shared her account of the execution attempt, saying, per CNN: "When the curtains were open she was kind of inconsistently going in and out of snores and silence.
"When the curtains closed one final time at 8:05pm we could consistently hear her snoring, and it kind of developed into a snore/squeak. Even at 8:53pm when the microphone was cut off, we could still hear snoring."
It was at 8.53pm when reporters watching on were suddenly told to leave.
Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said she had no immediate explanation to offer.
With the clock ticking, Pike's lawyers scrambled to file an emergency motion with the Supreme Court late on Wednesday, demanding an immediate halt to the execution, reports The Associated Press.
They argued she was being left in 'unnecessary agony', violating her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, states the report. Further motions were also filed with the Sixth Circuit and a district court.
Where is Christa Pike now?
Pike was taken to hospital after her heart was still beating following two lethal injections during her execution, her lawyer said.
It is currently unknown what her condition is.
This followed an earlier Supreme Court ruling that morning, which had reinstated the execution after it looked set to be delayed - a delay that would have postponed what was shaping up as the first time in roughly 200 years that Tennessee had put a woman to death.
Pike had originally been scheduled to die that morning for a killing she carried out at just 18-years-old.
Spectators were already in place at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution when news broke that the Sixth Circuit had narrowly voted, 2-1, in favour of pausing proceedings, ruling that more time was needed to consider whether Pike's claims of childhood sexual abuse had been properly weighed at her original sentencing.
No reasoning was offered by the court's conservative bloc, though its three liberal members pushed back in a joint dissent, insisting Pike's allegations warranted further examination.
Soon after, a Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson confirmed the state intended to push ahead with the execution before a midnight deadline.
The torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike and her then-boyfriend were convicted of fatally stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995 - a fellow student at a Knoxville job training facility.
The case made national headlines at the time, partly because a pentagram carved into Slemmer's body fed into the wider 'satanic panic' gripping America through the 1980s and '90s.
Following the stay, Tennessee's attorney general moved immediately to appeal to the Supreme Court. Prosecutors, in their appeal, accused Pike's legal team of deploying 'abusive delay tactics' and claimed the late intervention had caused further anguish for Slemmer's relatives.
The Tennessee Department of Correction issues a statement where it insisted it 'followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office'.
The statement added: "The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility."
Topics: Crime
Michael D. Carroll