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Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital during a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and was taken to hospital. Governor Bill Lee suspended executions and ordered an investigation.
Christa Pike survived two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital during a botched execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday evening. The 50-year-old was taken to hospital by ambulance instead of a hearse and was receiving life-saving medical care on Thursday, her lawyer Randy Spivey said.
She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The Associated Press was among the media witnesses. Pike was strapped to a gurney with an IV in her arm when the curtain rose at 7.27pm. Her spiritual adviser stood beside her, spoke to her and sang a song that included the repeated phrase I love you.
Pike Survives Botched Tennessee Execution
She raised her head, looked around and smiled. She then said her arm was hurting and asked a prison official if it was supposed to feel that way. At 7.37pm she sighed as the IV fed drugs from an adjacent control room. At 7.41pm a rock or paper weight about the size of a golf ball was placed on the ledge, apparently coinciding with a protocol direction that a five-minute countdown begins after the drugs are administered.
The curtain was closed at 7.46pm and raised again three minutes later. The Tennessee lethal injection protocol calls for a second round of pentobarbital if the inmate is not deceased after the first round. Pike appeared to begin losing consciousness and started making a sound like snoring. She continued for the next hour, a sign she was alive long after she was expected to be dead.
The curtain was closed again at 8.06pm. For the next 40 minutes she could be heard behind the curtain, making a rhythmic, regular breathing pattern. Media witnesses described her as somewhat alert and at one point singing with her spiritual adviser. About 8.22pm, Spivey demanded access to a telephone to contact other lawyers.
He demanded the execution be halted and that life-saving medical care be given to Pike. He received confirmation about 8.50pm that an ambulance was on the way. At 8.53pm an announcement told witnesses to exit the area. Fire trucks and ambulances arrived in front of the prison about 9.14pm and left about 15 minutes later.
Pike made a final statement while strapped to the gurney. I am ready to be free, she said. This is a happy day. She said she was leaving the world with love.
Lawyers Challenge Cruel Punishment
Two syringes of pentobarbital had been administered, but she had not lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring, her lawyers said. In emergency filings to federal and state court and the Tennessee Supreme Court, her lawyers said the execution was causing her unnecessary agony, in violation of her Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.
They had argued the procedure could be torturous because she has small veins, a history of sexual trauma and other medical conditions. They also argued her initial legal defence did not adequately present her history of child sexual abuse and neglect. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed protocol. 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, the agency wrote.
It confirmed Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility but has not said what went wrong. It was the second time this year Tennessee was unable to complete an execution. In May, the state called off one of four planned executions because medical staff could not find a vein while administering a lethal drug, so the drugs were not administered.
Supreme Court Allows Execution
Pike, who was 18 when she committed the murder, was scheduled to be executed after the US Supreme Court allowed the state to proceed just hours before the procedure was botched. A divided federal appeals court panel had briefly paused the execution earlier that day, saying more time was needed to consider the case. The three liberal Supreme Court justices dissented from the order allowing the execution.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the majority unnecessarily prevents the appeals court from fully considering Pike's argument. I see no reason to short-circuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision, she wrote. She was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor added that Tennessee's desire to expedite Pike's execution by a few days or even weeks cannot outweigh Pike's interest in protecting her own life.
Governor Suspends Tennessee Executions
Governor Bill Lee, who on Monday denied Pike's clemency appeal to commute her sentence to life in prison, ordered a suspension of all scheduled executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year and a third-party investigation. There is no one that wanted what happened last night to happen, Lee said. It is a tragedy, and it is deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state.
The people deserve better and we are going to make sure that happens. He said the investigation needs to be done thoroughly, however long that takes and whatever process is required to make sure we get to the very end of it and all the questions are answered. Spivey, Pike's attorney, said she was critically ill and receiving life-saving medical care in hospital. Christa is alive right now, he said.
We do not have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment, but we do know that she is alive right now. He called for the governor to spare her life. Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty. The governor must commute Christa's sentence now, Spivey said.
Victim's Mother Questions Process
May Martinez, the mother of Pike's victim, had travelled to Nashville to see the sentence carried out. I did not get justice for my daughter, Martinez said. I watched the whole thing. She was awake.
She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn't work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn't work the second time so she is in the hospital and alive.
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brisbanetimes:Tennessee woman still alive after attempts to execute her, lawyers say 
smh:How Christa Pike’s botched Tennessee execution unfolded, minute by minuteThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Tennessee Lethal Injection Failure Pentobarbital Botched Execution Eighth Amendment Cruel Punishment Supreme Court Death Penalty Ruling Tennessee Lethal Injection Botched Execution Bill Lee Executions Death Penalty
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