Christa Pike, a 50-year-old inmate on Tennessee's death row, was hospitalized after an attempted execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Her lawyers reported that Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring after being administered two doses of pentobarbital.
Pike's execution was halted due to medical complications, and her legal team filed an emergency motion seeking to stop the execution and provide medical care. District Judge Clifton L Corker subsequently issued a ruling allowing medical personnel to administer care. The Tennessee Department of Correction stated that the execution followed established protocol, but Pike's attorneys argued that the failed execution reflected concerns about Tennessee's lethal injection process.
Pike's lawyers had previously raised concerns about the state's lethal injection process, citing issues such as difficult vein access, blown veins, and degraded pentobarbital. They also argued that the protocol remains veiled in secrecy and lacks emergency medical care procedures. Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert retained by Pike's lawyers, stated that she likely did not reach a sufficient blood concentration of pentobarbital to cause apnoea and cardiovascular failure.
The attempted execution took place at about 20:00 local time, with the witness-room curtain closed twice after the two doses were administered. Media representatives were asked to leave at one point. Pike's execution had proceeded after a series of last-minute legal challenges failed, including a reprieve issued earlier on Wednesday by a lower court.
Pike's case has wider significance in the US death penalty system, with only 18 women executed in the country since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, compared with 1,663 men. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her then-boyfriend tortured and killed after meeting her at a job training camp.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had waited decades for Pike's sentence to be carried out, recalling the suffering her daughter endured. Martinez traveled from Florida to Tennessee with financial assistance to witness the execution, saying she wanted Pike executed. Pike's lawyers argued that jurors who sentenced her to death were not allowed to consider mitigating evidence concerning her documented history of childhood sexual abuse.
Pike's clemency petition stated that she had intended to beat Slemmer rather than kill her but was unable to "put the brakes on." Tennessee's governor rejected Pike's clemency request this week. Pike is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row.
Key points
- The execution attempt was halted due to medical complications after two doses of pentobarbital were administered.
- Pike's lawyers argue that Tennessee's lethal injection process is flawed and lacks transparency.
- The case highlights the rarity of women being executed in the US, with only 18 executed since 1976.
