Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived the state’s attempt to execute her when a lethal injection failed, leading officials to transport her to an area hospital where she remained alive receiving medical care. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called off the remaining scheduled execution in the state for this year and ordered a comprehensive, third-party review to determine what occurred. Pike, who was convicted of a 1995 murder, was slated to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in the last 200 years after the Supreme Court ruled earlier that her execution could proceed. Correctional staff administered two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike still had a heartbeat, had not lost consciousness, and was audibly snoring when her attorneys filed an emergency motion to halt the procedure. Witnesses noted that execution chamber curtains closed multiple times and Pike asked prison officials if the procedure was supposed to feel that way. State officials confirmed Pike was transported to a hospital for medical treatment following the procedure. Pike’s attorneys criticized the state’s execution protocol, citing difficult vein access, degraded pentobarbital, and a lack of immediate emergency care when issues arose. The Supreme Court had previously overridden a lower court order to halt the execution, though Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Pike has spent decades on death row for the 1995 killing of her former classmate Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18 years old. Her legal team and international advocates have long pointed to her history of severe childhood abuse, untreated mental illness, and young age at the time of the crime as reasons her sentence should not be carried out.
Source: cbsnews.com
