Christa Pike, a Tennessee woman who was set to be executed on Wednesday, was still alive that night after two syringes of lethal drugs had been administered, according to her lawyers.
Ms. Pike, who was convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate, is the only woman on death row in Tennessee. The apparent failure of her capital punishment, which would have made her the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years, came after a lengthy delay earlier in the day.
Here’s what to know:
The case
In 1996, a jury found Ms. Pike guilty of torturing and murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in an attack carried out with her boyfriend and a friend. They slashed at Ms. Slemmer with a box cutter, carved a pentagram into her chest and removed a piece of her skull.
Only Ms. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the killing, received the death penalty. Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was 17 at the time of the crime and was sentenced to life in prison as he was too young to be eligible for capital punishment in Tennessee.
Ms. Pike, now 50, does not deny her guilt.
“I run through this execution every day in my heart,” she told The New York Times earlier in September. “Whatever happens on Sept. 30, this will not be my hell anymore.”
Some experts have questioned whether Ms. Pike would be sentenced the same way if she were tried today. Her lawyers had argued that Ms. Pike’s initial legal defense did not adequately present her history of child sexual abuse and neglect.
