A graphic simulation offers a look at what happens inside the body during a lethal injection as Tennessee prepares to execute Christa Gail Pike.
Christa Pike, 50, is scheduled to be put to death on September 30 at 11:00 EDT (15:00 GMT), making her the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row. The upcoming execution has drawn significant attention, as she is the first woman since 1819 to face execution in the state.
Pike was just 18 years old when she was convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19. At the time, both teenagers were participating in a job-training program for troubled teenagers in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was dating fellow student Tadaryl Shipp, 17.
Their relationship led to Pike’s involvement in the brutal torture and murder of Slemmer, whom she reportedly saw as a romantic rival. In March 1996, Pike was sentenced to death after being found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The murder of Colleen Slemmer
According to testimony and court records, Pike attacked Slemmer with a piece of asphalt before taking her into nearby woods. She was accused of torturing the teenager and cutting her throat with a box cutter.
During Pike’s murder trial, prosecutors held up the broken skull of 19-year-old Slemmer and passed it around the courtroom as the teenager’s mother watched her daughter’s remains become evidence in the case.
“That was the hardest thing in the world – to watch your daughter’s skull be passed around,” Slemmer’s mom, May Martinez told the New York Times.
Police also discovered a satanic Bible and an altar in Shipp’s room following the murder.
Christa Pike execution
Now, as Pike’s execution approaches, a simulation posted by Dr. Wealz on YouTube illustrates what happens during a lethal injection. The process begins with the inmate being restrained on a gurney. Intravenous lines are then placed in the person’s arms before the drugs are administered.
Pentobarbital is given first, which is used as a sedative.
“As it enters the bloodstream, it acts on neurotransmitters in the brain, slowing down communication between brain cells. This impairs the brain’s control over the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, leading to a decrease in breathing and heart rate,” the narrator explains, according to VT.
The second drug, pancuronium bromide, is a paralytic. It completely paralyzes skeletal muscles, including those responsible for breathing. This ultimately results in respiratory arrest.
Potassium chloride is administered last. According to the simulation, the drug interferes with the heart’s normal ionic balance, triggering an arrhythmia followed by cardiac arrest.
“The brain, already starved of oxygen from respiratory failure, quickly succumbs to catastrophic irreversible damage. The heart stops within about a minute of the potassium chloride injection,” the narrator said.
First woman since 1819 to face execution in the state
For Pike, the prospect of that process becoming a reality has been accompanied by years of reflection on the killing and the life she took.
Pike has discussed the murder and her own past in the documentary Dead Woman Walking: Pike Vs Tennessee.
“I’ve always felt bad for her mother, that I took someone’s child, someone’s sister, someone’s friend away,” she said. “I feel remarkably remorseful for what I did.”
But she has also described the psychological toll of knowing exactly when she is expected to die.
“I have the most horrible nightmares,” she said in the documentary. “But I think what has been worse is that they told me a year ahead of time. And so every day, I have woken up and lived that thought all day, every day, every waking moment.”
“Her biggest fear is not the fear of dying”
What scares her the most is whether the execution team will be able to establish an IV line.
“The only place they can draw my blood is in my hands with a very tiny needle, and I know from reading our protocol that they aren’t allowed to put the IV in my hands,” Pike said.
“So I don’t know what they’re going to do, and I’m so scared that what just happened to Tony Carruthers will happen to me,” she added.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell told NewsChannel 9 that Pike has previously had problems with blood draws.
He explained: “Her biggest fear is not the fear of dying. It’s the fear of that process,” according to Tyla, adding that “if it’s quick and painless, she can accept that.”
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