The state of Tennessee intended to put Christa Pike to death on Sept. 30. The night ended with her being taken to a hospital for medical treatment instead.
Pike, 50, was given supposedly lethal injection drugs that failed to kill her. Her attorneys did not know her status late Sept. 30.
Short afterward, Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review of what went wrong and has paused the other execution scheduled for this year. Gary Wayne Sutton, who killed Blount County siblings in 1992, had been scheduled for execution Dec. 3.
The Tennessee Department of Correction, which handled the failed Pike execution, said it did everything right.
“The Tennessee Department of
Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” read a statement from TDOC spokesperson Dorinda Carter, shared more than two hours after witnesses exited the prison. “The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
Pike’s attorneys said the state’s failure to carry out the death sentence validated the concerns they raised in court before the execution.
“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” said the attorneys, who are Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender and Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.
“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
Lee said in a statement, “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective.”
As witnesses walked out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution shortly after 9 p.m., numerous emergency vehicles entered the parking lot and left shortly after.
The media witnesses who saw parts of the execution left with a limited understanding of what went wrong.
"We have a lot of questions," longtime WBIR journalist John North said during a news conference. "And TDOC has a lot of answers it needs to provide the public."
Pike's attorneys reported she was still breathing after receiving two doses of lethal pentobarbital. They sought an emergency stay in court.
Another attorney, Amy Harwell, had to drive the motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court because Pike’s lawyers could not get in touch with emergency contacts at that court, Gov. Bill Lee’s office or the Tennessee attorney general’s office, Gleason said.
As the lawyers were scrambling to make sure Pike got medical care, Gleason said, "We're not able to reach anybody that's responsible for stopping this.”
The execution had already been stopped and medical treatment had already begun by the time a judge weighed in.
The failure capped off a day marked by uncertainty.
Tori Gessner, a journalist at WKRN who has witnessed several executions, said, "Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all."
Less than two hours before Pike’s scheduled 10 a.m. execution time, a split three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit paused her execution to give them time to review Pike’s new arguments concerning her childhood sexual abuse.
While the attorney general’s office quickly appealed that order, no one knew when a ruling would come down.
Just before 6 p.m., the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices voted to vacate the stay, clearing the way for the execution.
Selected media members were let back to the witness chamber outside the death chamber at 6:41 p.m.
At 7:26 p.m. the blinds into the death chamber opened for witnesses to see Pike strapped to the gurney.
Media witnesses reported hearing Christa Pike speak multiple full sentences throughout the process.
“My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing," Pike said, according to Gessner, the journalist.
The blinds closed at 7:46 p.m. Witnesses said they could still hear her breathing when the blinds were closed.
Just 3 minutes later, the blinds were opened again. Pike was still breathing and began snoring, witnesses said.
The blinds closed again at 8:05 p.m. Witnesses said the breathing continued while the microphone was still on. Prison officials removed the witnesses from the room at 8:53 p.m. When the microphone cut off, witnesses could still hear her breathing.
The result surely was a disappointment for the mother of Slemmer, whom Pike bludgeoned to death in 1995.
Slemmer’s mother May Martinez drove 600 miles to Nashville thanks to an online fundraiser to witness the execution.
Martinez had long waited for Pike’s execution. Before the execution, she told the Nashville Banner she wanted to see Pike die, “so I can remember that she is gone and I don’t have to fear that she’s going to pop up somewhere.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Gov. Bill Lee pauses Gary Sutton execution after Christa Pike fails to die
