Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halts execution of woman who survived lethal injection

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the execution of Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of a 1995 murder in which the victim had a pentagram carved into her body. 

Pike's attorneys said in a court filing Wednesday night that their client is still alive and snoring, after she received two lethal doses of drug. 

The attorneys said Pike, 50, "has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat," and that curtains to the death chamber "have gone down twice." 

Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The case drew national attention in part because of a pentagram that was carved into Slemmer's body. This was during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s. 

Pike doesn't deny she committed the killing, and Shipp has admitted he carved a pentagram into Slemmer's body. Shipp was 17 when the crime was committed, which made him ineligible for the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Pike was initially scheduled to be executed Wednesday morning, but it was delayed after an appeals court stayed the execution. The Supreme Court later ruled the execution could move forward if it was carried out before midnight.

Prior to being injected with pentobarbital, Pike said, “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” which was intended to be her final words, WINK reported. 

Lee said in a statement that “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.

“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Lee said.