Tennessee’s governor has paused all executions after convicted murderer Christa Pike survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital.
Officials transferred Pike, 50, to a medical facility alive after her execution failed the evening of Wednesday, September 30, because protocols didn’t allow for further attempts to put her to death, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement Wednesday, according to The Tennessean.
“Therefore, the remaining scheduled execution will not be carried out this year,” Lee said.
Due to the botched attempt to kill Pike, Lee canceled Gary Wayne Sutton’s execution, which had been set for December 3.
The governor also ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review” of what potentially went wrong during Pike’s execution.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement Wednesday evening that officials “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening,” the statement continued.
Pike, the sole woman on Tennessee’s death row, was sentenced to death in 1996 following her first-degree murder conviction for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, her classmate in the Jobs Corps in Knoxville, according to authorities.
She was 18 at the time of the murder. If her execution succeeded, she would’ve been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike’s attorneys said in a statement Wednesday night that “the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” per The Tennessean.
“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy,” the statement continued. “Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed as to her condition.”
Journalists who attended Pike’s execution attempt said at a news conference that they heard Pike snoring after injections of pentobarbital and she also complained of pain, per NBC News.
Slemmer’s mother May Martinez was also a witness of the botched execution, which she said “was a mess” while speaking with the news outlet over the phone.
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Pike’s execution to proceed after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a stay to prevent her death on Wednesday morning.
