Tennessee botches lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike

Christa Gail Pike, 50, was scheduled for death by lethal injection in Tennessee on Sept. 30 for murdering and carving a pentagram into her JobCorps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 in Knoxville. But Pike’s execution failed, with the media hearing her loudly snoring behind the curtain for nearly 40 minutes after being dosed with pentobarbital.

Pike survived two doses. At 7:46 p.m. on Sept. 30, prison officials closed the curtains to the media. They were reopened three minutes later, to Pike snoring, and closed again at 8:06 p.m., reports Tony Gonzalez, Catherine Sweeney and Tasha A.F. Lemley for Louisville Public Media. "At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area."

The Tennessee Department of Corrections issued a statement saying every protocol was followed, and Gov. Bill Lee said a third party would investigate what happened. This isn't the first botched execution in Tennessee. The lethal injection of Tony Carruthers was called off in 1994 after Tennessee executioners failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.

According to Billy Witz and Emily Cochrane for The New York Times, Pike’s lawyers "called for Gov. Bill Lee to reduce her sentence to life in prison, calling the botched attempt to end her life with two doses of pentobarbital "cruel and torturous." Pike likely survived because the drug was degraded or did not enter her bloodstream. Slemmer’s mother wants to move forward with the execution.