Tennessee to investigate failed execution attempt of Christa Pike — CBC

In the US state of Tennessee, Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death, survived an attempted execution by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution prison in Nashville. She was taken to a medical facility outside the prison grounds, and her condition immediately after the incident was not disclosed. CBC reports.

Review of the actions of those carrying out the sentence

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he had ordered a comprehensive review involving a third party to establish the circumstances of what happened. He also said that another execution scheduled for this year would not take place. Earlier on Monday, Lee rejected Pike's request for clemency.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said staff had followed all stages of the approved protocol. The agency added that the drug provided for in the lethal injection protocol had “consistently been effective” and that the protocol does not provide for additional procedures beyond those already carried out.

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According to NBC News, Pike's lawyers filed a motion with a federal court during the procedure to halt it. They cited eyewitness accounts saying that after both syringes containing the drugs had been administered, Pike remained alive and was snoring. Journalists present as witnesses also reported snoring, loud exhalations, gasping and the condemned woman's complaints of discomfort in her arm. Clergy members were summoned to the chamber twice, and later an ambulance arrived at and left the prison.

Death sentence for the 1995 murder

Pike, now 50, was convicted for her involvement in the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime. She and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Taderil Shipp, confessed to the murder and were found guilty of first-degree murder.

The execution attempt took place several hours after the US Supreme Court lifted a stay imposed by a lower court. This was the second failed execution in Tennessee this year: in May, prison staff stopped an attempt to execute another condemned inmate after they were unable to find a suitable vein for the injection. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the United States out of 1,683 people whose death sentences were carried out.