Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death even after administering two doses of lethal drug pentobarbital. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted the executions for the rest of the year.
Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they hadn't been told about her condition.
Authorties are currently investigating that what went wrong.
Why she was sentenced to death? What she did? Whats the background?
Christa Gail Pike (Christa Pike) is an American convicted murderer in Tennessee state. In 1995, when she was 18, Pike murdered her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike and two friends led Slemmer into the woods where they tortured and killed her. In 1996, at the age of 20, Pike was sentenced to death.
While living at the Job Corps training campus, Pike became convinced that fellow student Colleen Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Along with her friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee campus.
On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and went to the woods, where Slemmer was told they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout.
Christa Pike is the 1st woman to be executed in 200 years in Tennessee.
