Christa Pike murdered her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime, while Slemmer was 19. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of killing Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Shipp was 17 when the crime took place and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only person sentenced to death for the murder. Pike received the death penalty for the same killing.
Witnesses reported hearing Pike snoring, gasping and complaining of pain during the execution attempt. Journalists who witnessed the procedure also reported loud exhales and frequent kicking that caused the sheets covering her to fall off, according to NBC News.
Prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, according to court filings cited by Al Jazeera. Her lawyers later said she had been taken from the prison in an ambulance to a hospital. The execution attempt followed a legal battle over Pike’s case. A federal appeals court initially halted the execution to consider whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse had been fully considered during sentencing. The US Supreme Court later overturned that stay, allowing officials to proceed.
Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Wednesday, but the lethal injection attempt did not result in her death.
