Christa Pike, the woman who had been on death row in Tennessee for almost three decades, survived this Wednesday the two doses of pentobarbital administered during her execution, which was left uncompleted and now leaves the future of the death sentence imposed on her in 1996 for a murder in uncertainty.
The execution began after the Supreme Court lifted a stay issued hours earlier by a federal appeals court, once again leaving the state free to apply the death penalty.
However, after the two courses of pentobarbital, Pike remained alive and witnesses were able to hear his breathing for almost an hour before being forced to leave the scene, in an episode for which, according to the journalists present, the Tennessee protocol does not seem to establish what to do.
According to a statement from Pike's lawyers collected by local media, the woman is receiving treatment in a hospital but her state of health is unknown.
"The concerns raised by Ms. Pike turned out to be true: difficulty accessing veins, burst veins, spoiled pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when something inevitably goes wrong, all under a protocol that remains shrouded in secrecy," her attorneys continued in their statement.
An unfinished execution
Witnesses described a procedure much longer than anticipated. Pike stayed awake for much of the first phase, speaking with officials and singing alongside her spiritual guide, who remained by her side throughout the process. He even complained of pain in his arm.
The first curtain separating witnesses from the execution site was closed around 7:46 p.m. local time (00:46 GMT), but opened again three minutes later.
Reporters then observed that Pike was still breathing and that his spirit guide returned to the room and shortly afterward he began a second round of administration of the drug.
After that second round, the witnesses again heard breathing, loud snoring and also observed head and neck movements and, at one point, Pike raised his head while remaining on the stretcher.
The curtain closed again around 8:05 p.m. and journalists continued to listen to his breathing until they were forced to leave the area, at approximately 8:53 p.m.
An uncertain scenario
Journalist Catherine Sweeney of the WPLN station explained during a subsequent conference that the Tennessee protocol contemplates a first administration of pentobarbital and a second course if the first does not produce the expected effect.
The procedure establishes the use of four syringes, two of them with 50 milliliters of pentobarbital, and allows the administration to be repeated, but the journalist pointed out that the instructions do not specify what happens if a person remains alive after receiving both doses, a situation that the journalists described as extraordinary.
Witnesses also later saw an ambulance leave the prison with sirens on, although they could not confirm who was traveling in it.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections confirmed Wednesday night that death row inmate Christa Pike survived the two lethal doses administered Wednesday afternoon during her execution and was transferred to a medical facility for treatment.
The state prison authority maintained that the protocol established by law for Pike's execution was followed and stated that no "additional procedures" are allowed beyond those carried out during the execution, which includes two rounds of lethal injection of pentobarbital.
"Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility," the statement added.
The Department also noted that the "protocol lethal injection chemical has been consistently effective."
Three decades on death row
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate in the Job Corps training program in Knoxville, committed the previous year. Her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, was also sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
Pike was 18 years old when the crime occurred and since then he has remained on Tennessee's death row, as the prison space where people who have been sentenced to capital punishment are held is called.
The execution was scheduled to be the first of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years and the US Supreme Court had hours before lifted the last judicial stop, but the procedure ended without the state being able to complete the sentence.
The last execution of a woman in the United States was that of Amber McLaughlin, in 2023 in Missouri (center), who was also the first transgender woman executed in the country.
In the United States, only 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Now it remains to be determined what will happen to Pike and the execution order, because his lawyers tried to stop the procedure with an emergency motion after he survived the two courses of pentobarbital.
