An anesthesiology professor said he was “not shocked” by Christa Pike’s botched lethal injection, revealing he warned Tennessee officials there could be difficulties given the killer’s medical history.
“I was not shocked,” Dr. Joel Zivot of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta told WSBTV of Pike surviving the double dose of the sedative Pentobarbital.
The 50-year-old death row inmate had a history of IV access issues along with a blood-clotting disorder, said Zivot, who was retained by Pike’s legal team.
“So when the chemical was injected, instead of going into the circulation, it ended up as a quanтιтy directly into the tissue in her arm. And this caused a significant burn.”
Pike had told officials she felt a burning after the two injections, according to media witnesses at her attempted execution.
“I would say that what she underwent was painful,” Zivot told the outlet. “And because we knew that it could happen, the state knew and they let it go anyway, that to me is a definition of cruelty.”
From heads bursting into flames to inmates surviving lethal injections, US executions have a gruesome history of being botched.
Roughly 3% of all executions between 1890 and 2010 went wrong, with hangings, electrocutions, and lethal injections all having significant failure rates. These incidents highlight the dark reality of capital punishment.
President Trump called Christa Pike’s botched execution an “interesting situation” but refused to weigh in on next steps, saying that was up to the state of Tennessee.
“That was an interesting situation, but you’re going to have to speak to Tennessee about it. Whether or not they’re going to go forward,” he told reporters who traveled with him to Texas.
He also expressed disbelief that Pike survived the two rounds of lethal injection, becoming the first person in history to survive that death penalty method.
“How does that happen?,” Trump said. “Should be easy to do. It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
A veteran journalist who was in the room for Christa Pike’s failed execution opened up on what it was like sitting on the lethal injection procedure, revealing the moment when witnesses realized something went wrong.
Will Puckett, a reporter for WVLT News in Knoxville, Tennessee, admitted to The Sun that he was left “at a loss for words” after witnessing Pike’s failed execution, saying that he and others in the room were waiting for the curtain to open for nearly an hour, far longer than he was told it should take.
“As we’re sitting in this room, and it’s now taking nearly an hour for them to open the curtain from the time that we’re sat, one of my colleagues in there, who had seen her fair share of executions, who was kind enough to kind of walk me through the process, leaned over and said, ‘It should not be taking this long for the curtains to open. Something’s going wrong,’” he told The Sun.
Pike gave her final statement at 7:27 p.m., saying that she was “gonna go out with love,” and that she was “ready to go.”
The lethal injection attempt then continued until 8:53 p.m., and the Emmy Award-winning anchor said that the media was left in the dark about the procedure’s details.
Puckett also noted that just one of the doses of pentobarbital “should be enough to kill a fully grown human.” Pike was administered two doses.
“That should have been more than enough.”
Rather than Pike succumbing to the injections, Puckett said that she started snoring deeply while on the gurney, with her legs and feet moving back and forth.
According to Puckett’s notes, the curtain was first closed at 7.46 p.m. and reopened at 7.49 p.m. before being shut again at 8.05 p.m., adding that witnesses could hear what was happening despite not being able to see it.
“The point of us being in there, or for observers, [is] to say, ‘Yep, the state did what it’s supposed to,’ but because they pulled the curtain, we cannot say that,” he said.
Despite repeatedly asking the Tennessee Department of Correction’s communications director for answers, the official said that they were in the same boat as the witnesses.
“The communications director was like, ‘I don’t know anything. I can’t get you an answer. You’re seeing and hearing what I’m seeing and hearing.’”
Pike, who was set to be the first woman executed in over 200 years in Tennessee, is now in critical condition at a nearby hospital.
“A killer ‘angel’ on death row,” by The Post’s longtime TV critic Michael Starr, ran on July 23, 1998, previewing an episode of “Fox Files” profiling Christa Pike three years after she murdered Colleen Slemmer.
Starr, then a few years into what would be a three-decade stint at The Post, wrote:
” ‘Fox Files’ wants you to meet a peтιтe little angel … of death.
“Tonight’s ‘Fox Files’ (9-10 p.m. on WNYW/Ch. 5) focuses on the horrific story of Christa Gail Pike, the youngest woman on any state’s death row.
“Pike, now 22, was 19 when she murdered romantic rival Colleen Slemmer by bashing a cinder block into Slemmer’s head — after beating Slemmer into unconsciousness while mutilating her with a box cutter.
“Pike carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest — and kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a ‘keepsake’ before admitting the murder to her mother.
“Pike could face death by lethal injection as soon as three years from now — and says she’s relieved she won’t get the electric chair because she would have had to shave off her beloved hair.
” ‘I think what she feels bad about is her own situation,’ said ‘Fox Files’ producer Cynthia Fagen, who interviewed Pike in her prison cell outside of Nashville, Tenn., where Pike spends 23 hours a day in isolation.
” ‘If she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t have killed that girl — if only because she’s been inconvenienced by the four walls [of her cell].’
” ‘Fox Files’ viewers will hear Pike’s cold-blooded, audiotaped confession and get to know Pike’s family, especially her horrified mother.
” ‘I started writing to [Pike] some time ago because she’s such a fascinating character,’ said ‘Fox Files’ senior producer Pam Browne. ‘She killed her love rival in a very up-close-and-personal manner. Her mom is very heartbroken by all of this — you’ll see from [her mother’s] story that this was a little girl who wore tutus and ballet outfits.’
“Fagen also interviews Slemmer’s parents, who were more-than-willing to pull the switch on Pike until Tennessee changed the law, allowing Pike the option of death by lethal injection.
” ‘The greatest terror in her life was the electric chair — but only because her pride and joy is her hair, and you can see how she primps for the cameras,’ Fagen said. ‘We were granted exclusive entry into her prison cell and were able to watch what she does. She’s like a little angel, a mama’s angel — who’s also a murderer.’ ” — Michael Starr