Christa Pike's lawyers confirmed on Wednesday night that the state of Tennessee administered two syringes of pentobarbital, but the killer is still alive, snoring as she left death row and was taken to the hospital by ambulance for medical attention.
Therefore, Pike's lawyers filed an emergency motion to stay her execution after the lethal injection administered by prison officials did not stop her heart. "Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness, she still has a pulse and is audibly snoring," the legal representative stated.
No officials from the Tennessee Department of Corrections have spoken since the failed execution attempt. Witnesses, including journalists who were in the execution chamber, claimed that Pike was alive for more than an hour and continued to breathe when they were ordered to leave the room.
The state protocol of Tennessee allows the condemned to receive a second set of backup drugs five minutes after the first. However, the document does not specify what happens if these fail. Additionally, the execution order against Pike expires at midnight U.S. time.
Pike being sentenced to death in 1996
Today in the afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the injunction imposed by an appeals court that had halted Pike's execution. In a 6-3 decision, the highest court determined that the execution could proceed before midnight. Left-leaning justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson opposed this penalty.
Pike, 50, is the only woman on death row in Tennessee and was set to be the first woman executed in that state in over 200 years. In January 1995, when she was 18 years old, she and two other students lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, where they beat and murdered her.
Pike, who kept a fragment of her victim's skull, was sentenced to death in 1996 and Tadaryl Shipp, who was then 17, received a life sentence. The other student involved in the incident, Shadolla Peterson, testified and was granted parole.
Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency on Monday. "After careful deliberation of Christa Gail Pike's clemency request, and after a thorough review of the case, I uphold the sentence of the state of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene."
