Tennessee Governor Halts Executions After Christa Pike Survives Two Lethal Injection Attempts

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted executions in the state for the remainder of the year after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal injection attempts.

RadarOnline.com can reveal the move comes amid mounting questions over the failed execution and scrutiny surrounding the lethal injection process.

As of late Wednesday night, Pike, 50, was still alive and allegedly snoring after the failed lethal injection attempts – before she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, her attorneys said.

Her legal team claimed in court filings the officials administered two doses of the execution drug pentobarbital.

Following the botched execution, Lee said in a statement he has requested "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and the remaining scheduled executions will not take place this year.

He added: "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."

As previously reported by RadarOnline.com, the Court of Appeals halted the execution an hour before it was scheduled, citing Tennessee’s "concession" of Pike's traumatic childhood, which included r--- and sexual abuse.

The court wrote this undoes the "foundation" of her sentence.

"Pike also cites scholarly authority supporting her argument that the State's representations about her history of sexual abuse tainted the state court proceedings and the subsequent federal ones by introducing damaging stereotypes of survivors of sexual assault," the order reads.

Following the delay, on late Wednesday night, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution of Christa Pike to go forward.

In a 6-3 vote, the justices overturned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit's temporary stay of the execution.

The court justices who voted to uphold the stay were Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

"The Court’s decision to vacate that stay interferes with the Sixth Circuit’s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim," Sotomayor wrote in the dissenting opinion.

"Worse, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the State to execute Pike before litigation over her conviction has properly run its course in the lower courts."

Pike's defense team has fought for years to get her execution overturned.

Over the last few months, with September 30 approaching, her lawyers have requested clemency from the governor and the Tennessee Supreme Court.

In both clemency petitions, the attorneys cited Pike’s abusive childhood, claiming that it contributed to her state of mind when she killed Colleen Slemmer.

They further claimed her young age at the time of the murder should be taken into account.

On January 12th, 1995, Christa Pike, her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and their friend Shadolla Peterson lured Slemmer to a nearby forest.

When they got there, Pike and Shipp cut, beat, and tortured the victim for over an hour. After the crime, Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull as a "souvenir" and bragged to classmates about it.

In 1996, Pike was sentenced to death for the murder. Shipp was sentenced to life in prison, as he was 17 when the attack occurred.