'Haunted by last night': Witnesses describe Tennessee convict Christa Pike's failed execution

Witnesses to the failed execution of Christa Pike, who was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 20 years, described horrific scenes after she was administered two lethal injections.Tori Gessner, a media witness to the execution, said the experience left her feeling “haunted.”“I’m haunted by last night. What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again,” Gessner told CNN.She later provided a detailed account of the events leading up to and following Pike’s failed execution.The witnesses were escorted into the witness chamber at 6:41 pm. local time on Wednesday. At 7:26 pm, the blinds providing a view into the execution chamber were opened, and Pike delivered her final statement.Also Read | Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections in a ‘miracle’ that changed her lifeAt 7:34 pm, Pike reported that her arm felt like it was “about to burst.” Over the next several minutes, she appeared to be talking, breathing, moaning and snoring.Catherine Sweeney, another media witness, described the scene as "completely abnormal."“None of it was normal. I covered all the executions last year, and most of the ones this year. We haven’t seen anything like it. It went really poorly," she added.Meanwhile, Pike’s legal team released a statement on Thursday, saying the execution team spent an hour attempting to establish an IV line and used at least seven needles in her left arm.“She did not have a fear of dying. It was a fear of prolonged, painful, traumatic death. That’s what happened, minus the death,” the statement read.Bill Lee, Tennessee’s Republican governor, subsequently announced that he would call off the state’s last remaining execution this year pending a third-party review to “determine what exactly occurred” during Pike’s execution attempt. Pike remains in critical condition and is receiving life-saving medical care.Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the killing. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, had met Slemmer at a training programme for troubled teenagers.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.