Is Christa Pike still alive? US death row inmate in hospital after heart kept beating through two lethal injections

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was rushed to a hospital after her heart kept beating through two lethal injections during her execution on Wednesday night. Her lawyers say she is receiving life-saving measures.

Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. She was being executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at about 8 pm local time. She was given two doses of pentobarbital. The curtain in the witness room was closed twice, and the media were asked to leave at some point.

Also read: Christa Pike said that she had ‘love’ for people who hated her before Tennessee’s failed execution attempt


As the procedure went on, her legal team filed an emergency motion to stop it. The motion stated that she had lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat and was "audibly snoring". District Judge Clifton L Corker later noted that medical staff had begun giving her care, as the motion had asked.

The Tennessee Department of Correction stood by its actions. Spokesperson Dorinda Carter said officials followed every step of the approved protocol. She said the drug has been consistently effective and the protocol allows no extra steps. Pike was moved to an off-site medical facility.

Pike's lawyers called it another failed execution by the state. They said their concerns about difficult vein access, blown veins and degraded pentobarbital had proved true. They also criticised the lack of emergency medical care and the secrecy around the protocol.

Dr Joel Zivot, an Emory University School of Medicine professor retained by Pike's team as a medical expert, said she likely never reached a blood level of pentobarbital high enough to stop her breathing and heart. He warned that the delay in starting resuscitation could leave her with a brain injury.

Legal challenges failed

The execution went ahead after several last-minute challenges failed. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court's reprieve, which had paused the execution to allow more time to consider the case. Earlier, it had rejected an appeal arguing that the jury never weighed evidence of Pike's childhood sexual abuse. The defence said Tennessee argued for years that she lied about the abuse. At a recent hearing on the execution method, the state said it did not dispute that she was abused and raped. Tennessee's governor rejected her clemency plea this week.

Background of the case

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time. She and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed Slemmer. They had met her at a job training camp for troubled teens. Pike had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend.

Two other camp residents later testified that Pike bragged about the killing before and after, and showed them a piece of Slemmer's skull. An inverted pentagram was found carved into Slemmer's chest. Pike has denied carving it.

Also read: ‘Alive and snoring’: Tennessee fails to execute Christa Pike after administering 2 lethal injection doses

In her clemency petition, Pike said she meant to beat Slemmer, not kill her. She described herself as a mentally ill 18-year-old and said she now understands the gravity of what she did.

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, wanted the sentence carried out. She had travelled from Florida to witness it, with help from a group that raised funds for her and her husband.

Since the US Supreme Court resumed the death penalty in 1976, only 18 women have been executed, against 1,663 men. That is about 1% of all US executions.