Criminal executions halted in Tennessee after death row inmate survives lethal injection 

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has survived a lethal injection attempt, causing the governor to halt all executions in the state for the rest of the year.

Pike, 50, was scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday morning, but a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling paused the execution about an hour before it began, saying sexual abuse Pike endured as a child wasn’t taken into proper consideration in the case, along with untreated mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and PTSD. 

The Supreme Court lifted the Court of Appeals ruling Wednesday evening, allowing Pike’s execution to move forward. However, after two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital, witnesses reported that Pike was snoring and still showing signs of life 40 minutes after the drug was administered.

“This is pretty unprecedented,” witness Catherine Sweeney said. “None of it should’ve happened and it wasn’t planned for.”

Tennessee execution law allows for a second lethal injection dose to be given if the first doesn’t work but doesn’t give any instruction on what to do after that, according to The Guardian.

“It made it really hard for the prison system to navigate, and it made it hard for us to understand what was going on,” Sweeney explained.

Pike had previously asked to be executed by firing squad, Al Jazeera reports, because her small veins and a blood disorder could make lethal injection difficult.

The crime

Pike became the youngest woman to receive the death penalty after she and her boyfriend tortured and killed her Knoxville Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 when Pike was 18 years old.

Slemmer was found with a pentagon shape carved into her chest – a symbol known to belong to satanic groups – and Pike bragged about her crime to classmates while carrying a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, admitted to carving the symbol and did not receive the death penalty because he was 17 years old. Shipp is currently serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

What now?

Pike has been taken to a medical facility, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has suspended all executions in the state as Pike’s failed execution is reviewed. The execution of Gary Wayne Sutton, 61, a convicted murderer, was scheduled for Dec. 3 but has subsequently been paused. 

This is the second time this year an execution hasn’t gone as planned.

Tennessee death row inmate Tony Von Carruthers was supposed to be executed in May by Mark Fowler – the same doctor who administered Pike’s lethal injection – but a vein couldn’t be found, and his execution was deferred by one year.

Pike is alive in critical condition, her lawyers confirmed Thursday, and the next steps for her execution are not yet known.

“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” Tennessee’s Department of Correction said in a statement about Pike’s attempted execution.

“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.”