Christa Pike, sentenced to death in Tennessee, was taken to the hospital Thursday after authorities “failed” to carry out her execution, her lawyers said, and witnesses reported that the convicted murderer was breathing despite two injections meant to kill her. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Just hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Pike to become the first woman to die by lethal injection in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee in 200 years. Tennessee prison officials did not publicly confirm the outcome of the execution, which included two injections of pentobarbital. “Tonight, the state of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” Pike’s attorneys said in a statement. “Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed of her condition.” Pike’s execution was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. (5:00 p.m. CET) at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where witnesses, including journalists, were present for the administration of the injections. “It looks like this didn’t go the way it was supposed to happen,” said WBIR investigative journalist John North, who was a witness at the execution site, adding that “when we left the building, as far as we knew, she was probably still alive.” During the live broadcast, an ambulance with lights flashing could be seen leaving the execution site; It is unclear if it was transporting Pike. The execution proceedings moved forward hours after the US Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting. “The Court’s decision… unnecessarily prevents [lower] “Worse still, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the State to execute Pike before litigation over his conviction has properly run its course in the lower courts.” Mental health considerations The case has sparked debate about capital punishment for young offenders. Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a youth job training camp. The murder gained national attention after Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram, often seen as a satanic symbol, carved into his chest. Pike’s lawyers argued that he should be granted clemency because of his young age and mental health issues at the time of the murder. “She was 18 years old when she committed her crime and was deeply ill,” they wrote in a petition for clemency to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said he would not intervene. He argued that Pike’s history as a victim of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood condition meant that a lethal injection would cause “unnecessary suffering.” Independent UN human rights experts urged the US government and Tennessee authorities to “immediately halt” the execution and commute his death sentence. “Pike’s execution would mark the culmination of a trajectory of severe physical and psychological suffering marked by child abuse and nearly three decades of solitary confinement on death row,” they said. 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The state of Tennessee will halt an execution scheduled for later this year after the failed attempt on Pike’s life, Gov. Bill Lee said. “The remaining scheduled executions will not take place this year,” Lee said in a statement published by the Tennessean and NewsNation, adding that he called for a “thorough, third-party review” of the botched execution.
