Execution of 50-year-old prisoner thwarted in US

The US state of Tennessee was unable to execute 50-year-old Christa Gayle Pike, convicted of a 1995 murder. Associated Press reports.

On September 30, Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital (a powerful sedative). In lethal doses, it depresses the central nervous system, leading to loss of consciousness and respiratory and cardiac arrest.

According to the criminal's lawyers, after the first injection she remained conscious, raised her head and asked why she was experiencing strange sensations in her arm. Then the woman was given a second dose. Pike's breathing became labored and she began to snore, but she remained alive.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called the incident unprecedented. He suspended upcoming executions until the end of the year and ordered an independent review.

Pike was sentenced to capital punishment 30 years ago, when she was 18 years old. That's when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked 18-year-old Colleen Slemmer. They brutally beat a girl they knew and carved a pentagram on her chest with a knife. According to investigators, Pike took a piece of the victim's skull from the crime scene as a souvenir.

Pike's lawyers asked the state Supreme Court to commute her sentence. They explained that she suffered from physical and sexual abuse as a child and was diagnosed with bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, this did not convince the judge. If executed, Pike would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.