Christa Pike was transferred to hospital for treatment after her execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, Tennessee, was halted yesterday (Wednesday, September 30).
In an incredible turn of events, Pike’s execution – scheduled for 10:00AM local time – was initially stalled just one hour before it was to commence after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that it needed additional time to consider arguments raised in Pike’s case.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision later that day, green-lighting Pike’s execution.
Yet there were further surprises in store during the execution itself.
In her final statement after being taken into the execution chamber, Pike said she was “going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love,” according to AP reporter Kim Chandler. She added that she had love for “the people who were out here hating on her.”
Chandler said Pike ended her statement by saying, “I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free,” before talking about celebrating her freedom and concluding, “This is a happy day.”
The State of Tennessee thereafter administered two rounds of its lethal injection protocol in an attempt to end her life. Both failed.
According to media witnesses watching from a separate room, the curtains to the execution chamber were opened at around 7:27 p.m., revealing Pike strapped to a gurney.
Tori Gessner, with WKRN News 2, said that at 7:34 p.m., after the first lethal injection was administered, Pike said: “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.”
“I saw a tear roll down (from) her right eye,” said WVLT Knoxville reporter Will Puckett, adding that Pike then complained that “one spot is really throbbing.”
As the execution continued, Pike began speaking less frequently and taking deep breaths. At 7:39 p.m., she lifted her head, while Puckett observed that Pike “was kicking her feet so often that she was actually knocking the sheet that laid over her off.”
The curtain dropped for the first time at 7:46 p.m., blocking the witnesses’ view, before opening up again three minutes later.
At this point, Pike reportedly sounded as if she were snoring loudly. Puckett recalled Pike’s lip quivering as she made sounds “like she was almost choking.” At 7:54 p.m., Pike grunted, lifted her head and opened her mouth, Puckett said.
At 7:56 p.m., “her body lifted off the gurney again, both her head and her legs” in a “v” shape, Puckett added.
As per reports, the curtain closed for the last time at 8:05. Media witnesses said Pike snored in a consistent, rhythmic pattern interspersed with the sounds of doors opening and closing until 8:53 p.m., when witnesses were escorted out.
Steven Hale, with the Nashville Banner, said: “I cannot emphasize enough how much of whatever just happened, happened behind a closed curtain. When Christa Pike was still alive, we could still hear her breathing, but we could not see what was going on.”
Pike was eventually taken to an off-site medical facility, where one of her attorneys told BBC News she was being given ”life-saving measures.”
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