Tennessee officials were unable to execute Christa Pike after administering two doses of the sedative pentobarbital. Pike, 50, was scheduled to die on Wednesday for a murder committed in 1995, but the execution was delayed for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal. The US Supreme Court had overturned a stay issued by an appeals court just an hour before the execution was set to begin. If carried out, her execution would have marked Tennessee's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
After the Supreme Court's ruling, officials attempted to proceed with the execution, closing the curtain separating Pike from the media viewing room at 7:46 PM local time. Witnesses reported hearing Pike snoring loudly, and the curtain was raised three minutes later. It was closed again at 8:06 PM, with witnesses continuing to hear her snoring until the microphone was turned off around 8:53 PM. Emergency vehicles were seen arriving at the prison during this time.
The Tennessee Department of Correction did not provide an explanation for the incomplete execution. Pike had been scheduled to die earlier in the day, but the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals issued a stay to consider whether Pike's allegations of childhood sexual abuse were adequately addressed during her sentencing.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority did not explain their decision to allow the execution to proceed, while three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed concern that vacating the stay prevented the appeals court from properly considering Pike's claims.
Tennessee's attorney general argued that delaying the execution caused trauma to the victim's family and allowed for what was termed “abusive delay tactics.” Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence, while Pike was sentenced to death.
Pike acknowledges her role in the murder but advocates for consideration of her age, mental illness, and allegations of severe sexual abuse. Her lawyers stated, “It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child sexual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant’s moral culpability.”
Pike has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder following the killing. In her clemency petition, she described her actions as a frenzied attack, stating, “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done.”
Slemmer’s mother has expressed a desire for Pike’s death sentence to be carried out after decades of waiting. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Tennessee has not executed a woman in over 200 years, and since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the US, accounting for about 1 percent of all executions.