Tennessee woman survives two lethal injections during execution
Tennessee inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal injections administered to her during her execution and was taken to a hospital.
Authorities attempted to carry out the death sentence following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before the execution began, the procedure was halted about an hour before the scheduled time: a federal appeals court said it needed time to review the arguments of the defense, which had urged that the murderer not be executed.
However, the Supreme Court granted the request of the Tennessee prosecutor, who demanded the lifting of the stay issued by the lower court.
The stay was lifted by conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who did not explain his decision. Three liberal members of the court — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — objected. The Supreme Court's decision was issued on Wednesday at around 6:00 p.m. local time. The warrant for carrying out the death sentence was due to expire at midnight.
Later, Pike's attorney said that she remained alive after the two lethal injections she had been given. Already while the execution procedure was underway, the inmate's lawyers filed an urgent request to stop it. "Pike has lost consciousness and her heart is still beating, her snoring can be heard," the lawyers' statement said.
Witnesses to the execution reported that after the injections Pike continued to breathe, and then they were led out of the room. Emergency vehicles then arrived at the prison.
Tennessee state authorities have not yet commented on the situation.
Professor Joel Zivot of Emory University's medical school (the inmate's lawyers have engaged him as an expert) suggested that the concentration of pentobarbital necessary to cause death had not formed in Pike's blood. He also did not rule out that, because of the delay in resuscitation, Pike could have suffered brain damage.
Pike, 50, had been awaiting execution since 1996, after she was found guilty of murder. If the sentence is ultimately carried out, Pike will become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Since the 1970s, only 18 women have been executed in the United States, compared with 1,663 men.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp beat, tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old girl they had met at a job training camp for teenagers with behavioral problems. Pike claimed that Colleen had insulted her and tried to steal her boyfriend. Two other camp residents later testified that Pike had boasted about the murder both before and after it was committed.
A year later she was sentenced to death, while Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Pike had a documented history of childhood sexual abuse and of living in conditions of neglect and lack of supervision. In the years since the sentence was handed down, Pike's defense has unearthed details of her childhood that, they say, the jury in 1996 was unable to take into account. Her lawyers believe that if she were a teenager today, with such a background she would not have been sentenced to death even with all the evidence of her guilt.
On Wednesday, in their ruling, judges of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said they needed additional time to consider the arguments in Pike's case. But the Supreme Court overturned their decision.
Source: BBC
