What Did Christa Pike Do? What to Know About the Botched Tennessee Execution.
New York Times · LC · trust 45/100
Ms. Pike, 50, survived two doses of a lethal injection in Tennessee. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of a classmate.
Listen · 5:31 min Share full article 215 Media witnesses recounted the moments before the execution of Christa Pike was halted on Wednesday. Credit... George Walker IV/Associated Press By Yan Zhuang
Ms. Pike, who was convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate, is the only woman on death row in Tennessee. Before the failed attempt to put her to death , she was set to become the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years.
It was unclear Thursday morning what her condition was, or what had gone wrong with the injections.
In 1996, a jury found Ms. Pike guilty of torturing and murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in an attack that she carried out with her boyfriend and a friend. They slashed Ms. Slemmer with a box cutter, carved a pentagram into her chest and removed a piece of her skull.
Ms. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the killing, received the death penalty. Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was 17 at the time of the crime and was sentenced to life in prison, as he was too young to be eligible for capital punishment in Tennessee.
Ms. Pike, now 50, does not deny her guilt.
“I run through this execution every day in my heart,” she told The New York Times in September. “Whatever happens on Sept. 30, this will not be my hell anymore.”
Some experts have questioned whether Ms. Pike would receive the same sentence if she were to be tried today. Her lawyers argued that Ms. Pike’s initial legal defense did not adequately present her history of child sexual abuse and neglect.
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