Teenage killer Christa Pike was still ‘alive and snoring’ after she received both doses of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday night.
Pike, now 50, had been scheduled to be executed at 10am on Wednesday for the 1995 slaying of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a fit of jealous rage.
But her procedure was delayed for hours on end after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order staying Pike’s execution ‘until further order of this court.’
The US Supreme Court finally overturned the order just before 6pm local time, clearing the way for Pike’s execution – the first for a woman in Tennessee in 200 years.
She was then administered two syringes of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee just before 7.30pm, but was still alive and breathing as of 9pm local time, The Tennessean reports.
‘She’s alive and snoring,’ her attorney Kelley Gleason said, explaining that she received the details from another one of Pike’s lawyers, Randy Spivey, who was in the death chamber with the murderer.
An ambulance and other first responders were then seen pulling up to the front of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Witnesses also said at an ensuing news conference that Pike was heard saying her arm felt like it was about to burst open.
Pike (pictured in court in 2007) was still ‘alive and snoring’ after she received both syringes of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday night
She was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer (pictured) to death
Emergency responders were seen rushing to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution following the botched execution
They told how the curtains into the execution chamber opened at 7.26pm, when Pike and her spiritual advisor sang a song and the killer made her final remarks.
The curtains then closed at 7.46pm, as Pike could be heard snoring. Witnesses were then removed from the room just before 9pm.
‘We have a lot of questions,’ one reporter said at an ensuing news conference. ‘And the [Tennessee Department of Corrections] has a lot of answers it needs to provide the public.’
Tori Gessner, a reporter at WKRN who has witnessed several executions, also emphasized: ‘Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.’
Another of Pike’s attorneys, Amy Harwell, is now driving an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
‘Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,’ the attorneys wrote in the motion filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
It comes one month after Pike’s attorneys argued at a hearing in Knoxville that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution process.
They also contended at the time that her veins are difficult to access, which could prolong the process and extend Pike’s suffering.
Pike’s attorneys argued at a hearing in Knoxville that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution process
State prosecutors disputed those claims, with hematologist Dr Richard Mansour testifying that Pike’s recent medical history showed her veins were accessible.
He also noted that medical staff had successfully completed nearly all recent blood draws with just a single needle stick.
In the end, Senior Judge Mark Ward concluded that the evidence did not show Pike’s veins or blood disorder would create a substantial risk of severe pain.
Pike’s attorneys had also previously asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her or to be hanged, the New York Post reported.
Having Pike be restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse, her lawyers had claimed, noting that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an Eighth Amendment violation will occur,’ Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.
When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.
She allegedly killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the rape.
Pike is pictured being escorted from Knox County Criminal Court on March 30, 1996, after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right)
Pike was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death.
She initially demanded she be spared a lethal injection because of her Buddhist beliefs. Earlier this month, she asked for an all-female firing squad to carry out her killing, with her lawyers citing the abuse she experienced as a child.
Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, also helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.
The pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, and Peterson testified that he saw Pike also carve something into Slemmer’s head, police evidence showed.
Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Slemmer attempted to run for her life but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.
Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Peterson, then 18, served as a lookout for the couple during the deadly attack and was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.
Pike was scheduled to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She is pictured attending a virtual court hearing in August
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
