Tennessee Execution of Christa Pike Interrupted by Court Stay

Tennessee’s execution of Christa Pike was interrupted by a last-minute court stay, then allowed to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that order. After two syringes of pentobarbital were administered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday night, Pike’s attorneys said she remained alive and audibly snoring. Witnesses also reported hearing her breathe after prison officials closed and reopened the viewing-room blinds. The reports did not establish her condition after witnesses were removed, and corrections officials had not publicly explained what happened. The execution had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. About an hour before it was due to begin, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a temporary stay while it considered whether Pike could reopen a federal habeas case. Her lawyers’ filing concerned evidence of childhood abuse that they said was not adequately presented during the penalty phase of her trial. The appeals court had not resolved that procedural question when Tennessee sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.