Tennessee Makes Call On Christa Pike’s Future After Two Lethal Injections Leave Her Snoring

Christa Gail Pike’s capital punishment procedure took a horrifying turn on Wednesday, September 30, after the Tennessee inmate was given two doses of the lethal injection.

She uttered what she thought would be her “last” words before receiving the injection for a crime she committed at the age of 18.

But even after it was administered, the 50-year-old was still conscious and talking from her capital punishment chamber. Attorneys wrote that she was “audibly snoring” at one point. 

Things took a horrifying turn in Christa Gail Pike’s capital punishment chamber on September 30

BBCNews

Trigger warning: this article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some. 

For 30 years, Christa had languished in Tennessee prison, waiting for her punishment for violently ending the life of her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Christa, who saw Colleen as a romantic rival, was 18 when she and her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured the victim and left her body with a pentagram, a symbol of Satanic ritual, carved into her chest.

Tennessee Department of Corrections

On September 30, Christa was supposed to become Tennessee’s first woman to be ex*cuted in 200 years.

At around 7:30 p.m., the curtains to her Nashville ex*cution chamber were raised. And media witnesses sat in a separate room to see Christa strapped to a gurney and saying she was at peace. 

“I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” she reportedly said as her “last” words.

Media witnesses claimed that Christa spoke about being “in love” during what she thought would be her final moments alive

TennesseanGannett

Reporter and official media witness, Kim Chandler, said Christa spoke about having “love” for people who were “out here hating on her.”

“She closed her statement with saying, ‘I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free,’” Kim said. “Then something about celebrating her freedom, and then she closed with, ‘This is a happy day.’”

Minutes passed after the first set of the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. But Christa was still conscious and stringing together full sentences.

WBIR10

“My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing,” Tori Gessner, a reporter for WKRN, quoted Christa saying.

Another reporter quoted her saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.”

By 8:26 p.m., the second dose of pentobarbital was administered, according to ex*cution witnesses.

She was later heard snoring from behind the closed curtain, and the microphone was cut off at around 8:50 p.m.

“Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all,” said the WKRN reporter. 

“My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” one reporter heard Christa saying

BBCNews

The ex*cution witnesses were then asked to leave while an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital. It is believed she received medical attention, but updates on her condition were not released.

After the de*ath row inmate was injected with two syringes of the lethal substance, her lawyers had quickly filed an emergency stay in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

They said Christa was put through “unnecessary agony,” and her right to be ex*cuted without cruel and unusual punishment was violated. 

“Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness,” the attorneys wrote, “and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”

WBIR10

Officials with the Tennessee Department of Corrections said they stand by the actions taken on Wednesday night, saying every step of the State’s “lawful, established ex*cution protocol” was followed.

The protocol states that “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set, then a secondary set of syringes are to be administered. If the second round also does not work, the protocol does not mention what to do if the subject is still alive, the department said in its statement.

This was the first time someone was still alive after actually receiving the lethal-injection in the U.S.

Jonnica Hill/Unsplash (not the actual photo)

What happened with Christa is “singular and unparalleled,” according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Dea*h Penalty Information Center.

In the past, there have been seven people in the U.S. who have survived attempted ex*cutions because the capital punishment team failed to access a vein to successfully administer the pentobarbital, Robin said.

But Christa’s case was the first time someone was still alive after actually receiving the lethal injection, she added.

The Evidence Room

Many were quick to condemn Tennessee officials as they waited for answers about what had happened to Christa.

“The incompetence of the Tennessee DOC sets the bar at the lowest level tonight,” Abraham Bonowitz, the Co-Founder of De*th Penalty Action, a U.S.-based advocacy organization dedicated to stopping capital punishment and abolishing the de*th penalty, told Bored Panda.

“There are no other words. This is an outrage. How do they sleep at night?” he added. 

Shortly before midnight, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he had ordered an investigation into what went wrong.

The state can now pursue another ex*cution date, and this is expected to raise a constitutional fight over whether putting Christa through a second attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Christa previously asked if she could be hanged instead of given the lethal injection

WKRNTV

Earlier this month, Christa’s lawyers had filed a clemency petition, hoping to stop the scheduled ex*cution.

They noted that the convicted woman had a history of being s**ually ab*sed as a child and had mental health issues. But these revelations came to light only after she was sentenced to de*th.

Her lawyers argued that if her childhood history was known earlier, then Christa would not have been sentenced to de*th as a teenager. 

In a statement included in the clemency petition, Christa said she wasn’t afraid to be ex*cuted, but she was “nervous” about the process.

She made a request to be hanged instead of being given the lethal injection, claiming she had a rare blood disorder that could make it more difficult to find a vein and also affect the way her body reacts to pentobarbital.

The 50-year-old also requested an all-female squad to carry out the ex*cution in front of witnesses, including the victim’s family. Her lawyers said the reason behind this was because of the PTSD she suffered at the hands of men. She was s**ually ab*sed from her toddler years and was allegedly rap*d when she was 11 and 17.

“Obviously it’s not meant to be,” one commented online

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