Christa Pike's execution was halted after she showed signs of life

Christa Pike was only 21 years old when she was sentenced to death in 1996 in a court in Knoxville, Tennessee. The year before, she murdered, under torture-like forms, the then 19-year-old Collen Slemmer. Pike's then-boyfriend was also convicted of the murder - to life in prison.

The murder received a lot of attention because a pentagram had been carved into the victim's chest. Christa Pike has always denied that she was the one who carved the symbol, which is linked to Satanism.

At the time of the murder, those involved attended a school for young people with various types of difficulties - in retrospect, Christa Pike has claimed that she was mentally ill at the time of the murder and that she abused because she had a very difficult upbringing, characterized by sexual abuse.

Yesterday, after several appeals and legal twists and turns at both the federal and state levels, the execution was finally set to take place. At 7:46 p.m. local time, two doses of pentobarbital were injected – a preparation that, in high doses, knocks out the central nervous system, breathing and the heart.

But the so-called media witnesses who were there could report that Christa Pike was snoring loudly for over half an hour after the execution attempt. Two hours later, her lawyers announced that she had lost consciousness but was still alive. She was taken by ambulance to hospital after the lawyers demanded a halt, citing that the 50-year-old was subjected to unnecessary anguish - something that is against the ban on executions taking place in a cruel way.

It is the second time this year that the state of Tennessee has failed to carry out a scheduled execution. In May of this year, the execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and triple murder in 1994, was suspended after failing to insert a working intravenous cannula to administer the fatal dose of pentobarbital. Carruthers is still awaiting execution.

In the case of Christa Pike, the relatives of victim Colleen Slemmer have waited decades for the execution to be carried out. Several of them had yesterday gathered outside the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. Many people who are against the death penalty were also present.

Pike is currently the only woman awaiting execution in the United States. When she was sentenced in 1996, she was the youngest person ever to be sentenced to death. Since the Supreme Court approved new death penalty laws in 1976, 18 women have been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This can be compared with 1,665 men.

On Thursday morning, Bill Lee, Governor of Tennessee, announced that this and another execution planned for this year will be halted until further notice. He also ordered an independent investigation into what happened.