NASHVILLE, United States — The US Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to execute death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday, overturning a last-minute stay issued by a federal appeals court.
However, Tennessee officials were unable to complete the lethal injection after Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, according to witnesses cited by The Associated Press. The execution was eventually halted, leaving the circumstances surrounding the failed procedure under further scrutiny.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked while they were both teenagers.
The US Supreme Court’s intervention came after judges at the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit temporarily halted the execution, saying they needed more time to consider Pike’s legal arguments.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh granted Tennessee’s application to vacate the stay. The Supreme Court order said the stay issued by the Sixth Circuit was vacated, allowing the execution to proceed. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Last-Minute Legal Battle
Pike’s lawyers had challenged her execution on several grounds, including claims concerning her childhood sexual abuse and the handling of mitigating evidence during her original sentencing.
Court documents show that Tennessee had acknowledged that Pike suffered serious abuse as a child, despite previous litigation in which the state had disputed aspects of her claims. Her lawyers argued that the change in the state’s position raised questions about earlier federal court decisions concerning her case.
The Supreme Court had already rejected a separate application from Pike on Tuesday, denying her request for a stay and her petition for review.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had also rejected Pike’s clemency request.
Pike was 18 when she participated in Slemmer’s killing in Knoxville in 1995. Prosecutors said the two women had met at a job-training camp for troubled teenagers.
Execution Interrupted
After the Supreme Court lifted the stay, Tennessee proceeded with the lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
But witnesses said the procedure did not result in Pike’s death despite the administration of two doses of pentobarbital. Emergency vehicles were seen at the prison as officials dealt with the situation.
Pike’s lawyers said she experienced unnecessary suffering and sought further legal intervention.
The failed execution came after an already lengthy legal battle spanning nearly three decades and renewed attention on Tennessee’s lethal-injection procedures.
Pike Was Youngest On Tennessee Death Row
At the time she was sentenced, Pike was 21 and was described by the Tennessee Department of Correction as the youngest person on the state’s death row.
She remains the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been executed in the United States, compared with more than 1,600 men.
In her clemency petition, Pike expressed remorse for Slemmer’s death, saying she had intended to beat her but failed to stop the attack from escalating.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had supported the execution and travelled from Florida to Tennessee to witness it after waiting decades for the sentence to be carried out.
