Christa Pike, the sole woman on Tennessee's death row, remained alive late Wednesday after authorities administered two rounds of lethal pentobarbital in an attempted execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Witnesses were escorted from the chamber an hour after the drugs were given, with Pike still heard breathing and snoring. An ambulance with flashing lights was later seen leaving the facility.
Tori Gessner, a reporter with ABC Nashville affiliate WKRN, was among the journalists who witnessed the execution. "I've witnessed five executions in Tennessee. Nothing about today was normal, typical—at all," Gessner said. Pike was still snoring when witnesses left at 8:53 p.m. local time.
Attorneys Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason, representing Pike through the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, confirmed Pike was being treated at a nearby hospital but said they had not been informed of her condition. "Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution," they said. Spivey and Gleason cited "difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong" and criticized the execution "protocol that remains veiled in secrecy."
The Tennessee Department of Corrections has not confirmed Pike's condition following the attempted execution. The state's warrant for Pike's death sentence was set to expire at midnight local time.
The attempted execution followed hours of legal maneuvering at the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Pike's execution to proceed after granting Tennessee's request to lift a stay issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Supreme Court's majority did not provide an explanation for its decision.
The three dissenting justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson—objected sharply. Sotomayor wrote that the decision "interferes with the Sixth Circuit's routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike's claim." She added: "Worse, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the State to execute Pike before litigation over her conviction has properly run its course in the lower court."
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Slemmer was attacked for 30 to 45 minutes, beaten and repeatedly cut with a box cutter and meat cleaver. Her head was bashed with a rock or piece of asphalt, and a pentagram was carved into her body while she was still alive.
Tennessee has faced mounting pressure over its execution procedures. In May, a botched lethal injection prompted dozens of medical professionals in the state to publicly urge Governor Bill Lee to prevent healthcare professionals from assisting with executions. Lee ordered a review following that incident.
