Death row inmate Christa Pike was taken to hospital after the lethal injection execution procedure in Tennessee did not result in her death.
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During the execution, the 50-year-old woman lost consciousness, but her attorney said she continued to have a pulse and could be heard struggling to breathe. Pike had received two doses of pentobarbital at the Riverbend maximum-security facility in Nashville.
As the procedure continued, the defense filed an emergency motion to halt it. Her attorneys had earlier raised concerns about locating her veins, damage to them and potential problems with the substance being injected.
The request to stop the execution had previously been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also rejected Pike’s clemency request.
After the execution failed, U.S. District Judge Clifton L. Corker ordered that medical personnel be allowed to provide Pike with the necessary care. Later, the Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed that she had been taken to a hospital outside the prison.
Authorities denied that the state protocol had been improperly followed. Spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said that all the steps required under the official execution rules had been followed.
Bill Lee announced that he had ordered a full and independent investigation to clarify what happened during the procedure. He also announced the cancellation of all executions scheduled in Tennessee, saying that no further executions are expected during the remainder of the year.
Christa Pike was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, which took place in Knoxville on January 12, 1995. Pike was 18 years old at the time.
According to prosecutors, Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, took Slemmer to a wooded area, where they attacked and killed her. Shipp, who was 17 when the crime occurred, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Pike has not denied responsibility for the murder, but over the years she has maintained that at the time of the crime she was an 18-year-old suffering from mental health problems.
Had the execution been carried out, she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
