Woman Hospitalised After Lethal Injection Execution Fails

Tennessee woman Christa Pike was taken to a hospital Thursday after authorities allegedly failed to complete her execution, with witnesses reporting that she was still breathing after receiving injections intended to kill her.

Just hours earlier, the US Supreme Court had cleared the way for Pike to become the first woman to die by lethal injection in the southern US state of Tennessee in 200 years.

Tennessee corrections officials did not publicly confirm the outcome of the execution, which involved two injections of pentobarbital, or respond to an AFP query seeking information.

“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” Pike’s attorneys said in a statement. “Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed as to her condition.”

Pike was scheduled for execution at 10:00 am (1500 GMT) at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where witnesses, including journalists, were present for the administration of the injections.

“It appears this did not go how this was supposed to go,” said investigative journalist John North of WBIR, who witnessed the execution. He added that “when we left the building, so far as we knew, she was probably still alive.”

During the livestream, an ambulance with its lights flashing could be seen leaving the execution site, although it was unclear whether it was transporting Pike.

The execution proceeded hours after the US Supreme Court ruled that it could go ahead, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.

“The court’s decision unnecessarily prevents that [lower] court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim,” the dissenting justices wrote.

“Worse, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the State to execute Pike before litigation over her conviction has properly run its course in the lower courts.”

The case has sparked debate over capital punishment for people who commit crimes at a young age.

Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.

The killing gained national attention after Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram, often associated with satanic symbolism, carved into her chest.

Pike’s lawyers argued that she should be granted clemency because of her young age and mental health issues at the time of the killing.

“She was 18 when she committed her crime, and she was deeply mentally ill,” they wrote in a clemency petition to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said he would not intervene.

The US Supreme Court had on Tuesday rejected an application for a stay of execution, which argued that Pike’s history as a victim of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood condition meant a lethal injection would cause “needless suffering.”

Independent UN rights experts had also urged the US government and Tennessee authorities to “immediately halt” the execution and commute her death sentence.

“Pike’s execution would mark the culmination of a trajectory of severe physical and psychological suffering marked by childhood abuse and nearly three decades of solitary confinement on death row,” they said.

In the United States, only 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.