Christa Pike’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday, September 30. But after two lethal injections, she was still alive and rushed to a hospital. Here’s everything we know about what happened inside the execution chamber.
Christa Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center in Tennessee.
Pike was dating Tadaryl Shipp, 17, at the time. Their relationship eventually led to her involvement in the brutal killing of Slemmer, whom she reportedly viewed as a romantic rival.
Together with another student, Shadolla Peterson, Pike and Shipp lured Slemmer to an isolated spot near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus. Slemmer was then stabbed to death, and her throat was cut with a box cutter. The murder drew widespread attention after a pentagram was carved into the victim’s chest, echoing the Satanic imagery that had fascinated Tadaryl at the time. Pike later told another student that she had kept a piece of the victim’s skull as a “souvenir.”
In March 1996, Pike was sentenced to death after being found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Christa Pike’s execution
After nearly 30 years on death row, her execution was scheduled for Wednesday. But the process was delayed for hours after a federal appeals court temporarily halted the execution. The U.S. Supreme Court later lifted the stay, allowing Tennessee officials to proceed.
According to witnesses, the execution ultimately spanned more than two hours.
Media witnesses were allowed into the witness room at 6:26 p.m., according to the Nashville Banner. Soon after, Pike said: “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life,” she said, according to Nashville Banner. “And that is with love.”
The curtains to the execution chamber were opened at around 7:27 p.m., revealing Pike strapped to a gurney.
The Department of Correction told several witnesses they would be allowed to watch Pike’s execution. However, at a news conference, they said TDOC staff repeatedly drew a curtain across the viewing window, blocking their view of the room where Pike was being executed.
From the outset, witnesses were struck by how much Pike spoke during the process. At one point, she and her spiritual adviser sang a song containing the words “I love you.” Witnesses later described the entire process as being “out of sorts from the get-go.”
What happened in the room
Also present at the execution was her spiritual adviser, Rev. Mikey Noechel. They recited a final prayer together: “May you be at peace. May you be kind and gentle to yourself.”
She directed the same message to the media reporters, “the people behind the glass.” According to the Nashville Banner, several witnesses present were surprised by Pike’s attitude before the execution.
Pike didn’t appear to be in distress and had said before the execution: “I am not afraid to die. I’m only nervous about the process.”
In a final statement, Christa said she was ready to die.
“I’m at peace, I’m ready to be free. This is a happy day,” were her very last words before the lethal injection.
At 7:34 p.m., after receiving the first dose, she reportedly complained of pain in her arm, saying it felt like it was “about to burst open.”
“Does it happen like that?” she asked Noechel, according to Nashville Banner.
“Relax,” he responded.
“I’m trying,” she said before smiling and laughing as a tear rolled down her face.
Witnesses reveal what they saw
Witnesses noticed Pike struggling to breathe, but her breathing eventually settled into a steady rhythm. She “was kicking her feet so often that she was actually knocking the sheet that laid over her off,” Will Puckett of WVLT Knoxville, according to Tennessee Lookout.
The viewing curtain was pulled shut at 7:46 p.m., forcing her spiritual adviser to step outside. By 7:49 p.m., the curtain had been reopened and Noechel was back inside, suggesting officials were preparing for another attempt.
Puckett said Pike’s lip began to tremble as she made noises that sounded “like she was almost choking.” She continued to make snoring-like sounds before, at 7:54 p.m., letting out a grunt, raising her head and opening her mouth.
Two minutes later, “her body lifted off the gurney again, both her head and her legs” in a “v” shape.
As Pike’s snoring became louder, TDOC once again drew the curtain closed at 8:05 p.m. Witnesses repeatedly asked for it to be reopened, but could only listen until 8:53 p.m. The microphone in the execution chamber then went silent, and the warden instructed everyone to leave. Pike was still alive and breathing.
“Nothing about today was normal”
At 9:28 p.m., she left the prison in an ambulance, according to the Nashville Banner.
“Very obviously, we have a lot of questions about what we saw and what we did not see, because there were moments when the blinds were down for us, and there were moments when the blinds were up for us,” said John North, investigative producer for WBIR TV in Knoxville. “It appeared that this did not go like they thought it was supposed to go, but we don’t know that.”
After 11 p.m., TDOC emailed the following statement: “The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office. 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.”
Tori Gessner with WKRN News 2 also witnessed the ordeal, and said: “I’ve witnessed, I believe, five executions in Tennessee. Nothing about today was normal, typical at all, and the court delay was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Christa Pike’s condition remains unclear. After receiving two doses of lethal injection drugs, she was transported from the prison to an off-site medical facility, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. One of her attorneys told BBC News she was being given ”life-saving measures.”
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