US woman, 50, sentenced to death, given 2 lethal injections, survives & heard 'snoring'

Christa Gail Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Sep. 30, but she remained alive after two rounds of lethal injection.

Pike could be heard ‘snoring’ after her attempted execution before the microphone was shut off, and was taken by an ambulance from the prison.

According to BBC, citing her attorney, Pike was being provided "life-saving" measures in hospital now.

Failed lethal injections

Media witnesses were allowed to observe from a separate room, and they saw Pike strapped to a gurney when officials raised the curtain to the execution chamber at about 7.30pm as reported by CNN.

She was reportedly speaking in full sentences as she was about to be administered with deadly drugs, and was heard saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing,”

Her first dose of the lethal drug, pentobarbital, was administered. About an hour she was given the first injection, a second dose was administered at around 8.30pm.

She could be heard snoring until microphones were cut off at about 9pm, and witnesses were asked to leave at that time.

According to the New York Post, her attorneys said that she had “not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”

She was transferred to an off-site medical facility.

Protocol

According to the New York Post, in Tennessee, prison officials prepare one set of the lethal injection, but have enough of the drug on hand to prepare a second set if needed.

There is a five-minute waiting period after the first set is given, during which the blinds to the execution chamber are closed.

If the inmate does not die after the first set, the second set will be administered. However, the protocol does not give instructions on what to do if the second injection fails.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said that it followed all protocols during the failed execution.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called for a full review of what may have gone wrong and has called off the one remaining execution scheduled in the state before 2026 ends.

Following the failed execution, Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to the Supreme Court to stay her execution.

Their argument says that Pike was in “unnecessary agony” and she was denied her right to be executed without “cruel and unusual punishment”.

Her attorneys said, “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.” as reported by the New York Post.

Christa Pike’s case

In 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and her friend Shadolla Peterson lured the victim, Colleen Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville Campus.

Peterson acted as the lookout as Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmer for at least 30 minutes. They carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest with a box cutter, hit her with a meat cleaver, and slashed at her throat while she begged for her life.

They finally killed her by using a block of asphalt to smash her head, with Pike keeping a piece of her skull.

Pike’s execution would have made her the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years.