The scheduled execution of 50-year-old Christa Gale Pike in Tennessee turned into a thriller, as prison officials were unable, according to journalists who were present as witnesses, to complete the lethal injection procedure, and the woman was ultimately taken to the hospital.
Paik was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for a murder she committed in 1995, when she was 18 years old. If the execution had gone ahead, she would have been the first woman to be executed in the state of Tennessee in at least 200 years.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The process had already been delayed for hours as the courts considered a last-minute appeal. About an hour before the scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling that had temporarily blocked the lethal injection, effectively giving the authorities the “green light” to proceed.
The two doses and the closing of the curtain
According to the Associated Press, citing media representatives who were observing the proceedings, prison officials appeared to administer two doses of pentobarbital—the substance used for the execution—to Pike.
At 7:46 p.m., prison officials closed the curtain separating the execution chamber from the room where the journalists were located. Three minutes later, the curtain opened again. At that point, according to the same accounts, Paik could be heard snoring loudly.
At 8:06 p.m., the curtain closed again, while the 50-year-old’s snoring continued to be heard from the closed room. At approximately 8:53 p.m., the microphone was turned off, and shortly thereafter, reporters were told they had to leave the room.
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Corrections told media representatives that he was unable to provide immediate information on exactly what had happened. At the same time, emergency vehicles were seen entering and leaving the prison grounds.
Paik’s lawyers later stated that their client had been taken to the hospital, where efforts are being made to keep her alive.
Emergency Appeal to the Supreme Court
According to the U.S. news agency, Paik’s lawyers filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday, seeking an immediate halt to the proceedings. In their petition, they argued that the 50-year-old was in a state of distress and that the manner in which the execution was proceeding violated her constitutional right not to be subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment.”
At the same time, petitions were filed with both the 6th District Court of Appeals and a federal district court. Her defense attorneys also asked prison authorities to take measures to save her life. “Failure to provide such care constitutes willful disregard for legitimate and serious medical needs,” they stated.
The Murder of 19-Year-Old Colleen Schlemmer
Paik was 18 years old in January 1995 when, along with her then-17-year-old boyfriend and a friend, they lured 19-year-old Colleen Schlemmer, a fellow student in the Job Corps vocational training program, to a wooded area where they killed her after first torturing her.
The gruesome nature of the murder—the perpetrators carved a pentagram into the victim’s chest and removed a piece of her skull, taking it as a memento of their crime —received widespread media coverage at the time.
Testimony revealed that Pike viewed Schlemmer as a rival because Schlemmer had become obsessed with her partner, Tandaril Ship. Paik and Ship confessed to the crime, and one year after the crime, they were both convicted of premeditated murder. Paik was sentenced to death, while Ship was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
Their co-defendant, Santola Peterson, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime and acted as a lookout, testified for the prosecution and was placed under probation.
Paik was also convicted in August 2001 of attempted murder in connection with an attack on a fellow inmate, according to Tennessee corrections officials.
In their 226-page petition asking the governor to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, her attorneys cited Pike’s experiences: she was a victim of violence during her childhood, suffered repeated sexual abuse and neglect, and was raped twice—at ages 11 and 17. And they cited the diagnoses Pike received in prison for bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Second Failed Execution in the Same Year
This is the second time in the same year that Tennessee authorities have failed to carry out a scheduled execution. In May, the lethal injection of Tony Carraders—who had been convicted of the kidnapping and murder of three people in 1994—was canceled at the last minute.
In that case, the executioners had tried unsuccessfully for more than an hour to insert an intravenous line to administer pentobarbital, resulting in the authorities ultimately halting the procedure.
Source: Proto Thema
