Home · World · Oct 1 archive
Tennessee Execution Fails After Two Lethal Injections
Confirmed
In Short: Christa Pike, a death row inmate convicted of murdering a classmate three decades ago, survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive, third-party review to determine what went wrong and said no further executions will take place this year.
The Tennessee Department of Correction stated they followed the state's lawful execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.
The state's protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes if the inmate is not deceased after the first set.
An appeals court initially halted the execution, but the Supreme Court later overturned the stay.
Pike's legal team filed an emergency motion during the execution, stating Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was snoring.
Pike was transported to a medical facility after the failed execution.
Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert for Pike's legal team, suggested Pike did not achieve a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause death.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
The execution was the subject of a last-minute legal battle, culminating in the Supreme Court allowing the lethal injections to proceed.
What this adds
Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years.
Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the US, representing about 1 percent of all executions.
What's confirmed
- The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that they “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office”.
- The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set.
- An appeals court ruling stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start, but a Supreme Court ruling later overturned the stay.
What's still developing
- Christa Pike, convicted of murdering a classmate three decades ago, has survived Tennessee’s effort to execute her by means of lethal injection, prison officials said.
- Journalists who witnessed the attempted execution described snoring, loud exhales, gasps and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid over her.
- Tennessee’s attorney general had argued that delaying the execution traumatised the family of Pike’s victim, Colleen Slemmer, and rewarded what it called “abusive delay tactics”.
- Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
- Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been executed in the US, representing about 1 percent of all executions, according to the centre.
- Her killing would have been Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
- He said the year's last remaining execution would not go ahead as planned.
- "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. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility," she said.
- The Supreme Court had previously dismissed an appeal by Pike's lawyers, who had argued the jury did not get the chance to weigh mitigating evidence of Pike's documented history of childhood sexual abuse, before they sentenced her to death in 1996.
- But at a recent hearing about her execution method, the state said it did not dispute that she had suffered sexual abuse and rape.
- Slemmer's mother May Martinez was among those who wanted the execution to take place.
- Speaking to NBC News after Wednesday evening's events, she said: "It was a mess." The attempted execution took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at about 20:00 local time (01:00 GMT on Thursday).