Tennessee inmate Christa Pike still alive after lethal injection dose, lawyers say

Lawyers for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike said she was still alive Wednesday night after being administered two syringes of lethal injection drugs.

Pike’s federal public defenders wrote in a motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court that witnesses reported she had been given doses of pentobarbital at 8:26 p.m. but was “still alive and snoring.” They asked the court to immediately halt the execution.

“This execution is causing Ms. Pike unnecessary agony and occurring in violation of his right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment,” they wrote. “The prolonged nature of an attempt to execute her is causing Ms. Pike to suffer superadded physical and mental suffering.”

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 for killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Jobs Corps Center worker from Knoxville, in apparent jealous rage. Prosecutors say Slemmer was lured to an abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus where she was beaten, tortured and ultimately killed by Pike and Pike’s then-boyfriend.

Pike confessed to the murder, admitting she had slashed Slemmer’s throat several times, threw asphalt at her head and kept a piece of her skull as a souvenir. A pentagram was also carved into Slemmer’s chest.

Pike was 18 at the time of the murder, which her lawyers and anti-death penalty advocates said should have been a factor when weighing her punishment. Her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was not eligible for the death penalty , as he was 17 when the crime occurred. Shipp was sentenced to life in prison and denied parole last year.

Her lawyers also argued that Pike’s history of enduring “extreme sexual abuse” as a child, including rape, was not fully presented to the jury during the sentencing phase. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her apparent botched execution was delayed for multiple hours on Wednesday after a panel for the 6 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused it to allow more time to review Pike’s legal challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted the order hours later at Tennessee’s request, allowing the execution to proceed. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that she saw “no reason to short circuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision.”