The execution of Krista Gale Pike, 50, was not completed on Wednesday evening in Tennessee after her heart continued beating even after two doses of pentobarbital were administered. Her lawyer confirmed to the BBC that Pike was subsequently taken to a medical facility.
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Pike, who is facing the death penalty for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Schlemmer, is the first woman in Tennessee to undergo an unsuccessful execution by lethal injection.
The procedure began at around 8 p.m. local time at the Riverbend Correctional Center in Nashville. The Associated Press reported that two doses of pentobarbital were administered to the condemned woman, while the curtains separating the execution chamber from the witnesses’ area were closed twice.
Journalists present said they could hear the 50-year-old woman snoring loudly. At one point, they were asked to leave the room where the procedure was taking place.
Afterward, Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court to halt the execution and provide immediate medical assistance. In their documents, they wrote that Pike had lost consciousness, but her heart was still beating and her snoring could still be heard.
Federal Judge Clifton Corker ordered medical care to begin, while Pike was later transported to an outpatient center.
Her legal team claimed that Tennessee authorities had failed to carry out a lawful execution. The concerns raised included difficulties locating veins, possible damage to them during the injection, degradation of the pentobarbital and the lack of proper medical treatment in the event of complications.
The Tennessee Department of Correction rejected the criticisms and said the procedure had followed every stage set out in the state protocol. Spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said the substance used for the lethal injection had been repeatedly tested and found to be effective.
Following the incident, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that all executions scheduled for the rest of the year would be suspended. He also called for a full investigation to clarify the causes of the incident.
Joel Zivot, a physician, professor at Emory University School of Medicine and an expert retained by Pike’s lawyers, told the BBC that the necessary level of pentobarbital may not have been reached in her blood to cause respiratory arrest and cardiovascular collapse. He said that a delay in beginning resuscitation may also have created a risk of brain damage.
The procedure took place after the US Supreme Court overturned a temporary stay that had earlier been imposed by a lower court. It was the second time in two days that Supreme Court justices had authorized an execution to proceed.
Pike received the death sentence in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Schlemmer, a crime committed in January 1995, when Pike was 18.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend at the time and a friend took Schlemmer, a Job Corps student, to a wooded area. There, according to testimony, they tortured and killed her. Pike and her boyfriend admitted to the crime, while another defendant testified for the prosecution.
The defense argued that the jury had not properly considered the history of sexual abuse Pike had experienced during her childhood. Her lawyers asked that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Governor Lee rejected the request for clemency. Pike was the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
