After day of delays, witnesses say Tennessee lethal injection fails to kill Christa Pike | CBC News

Tennessee authorities did not complete the planned execution of Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday for a 1995 homicide, according to journalists who observed the process. The procedure followed a pause lasting hours while judges reviewed a late legal challenge.

Reporters said sounds of snoring could be heard from behind a curtain until audio was stopped around 8:53 p.m., when they were asked to leave. A spokesperson for the state corrections agency, Dorinda Carter, said she could not immediately explain the outcome.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted the state to move forward. No reasoning was given by the majority, while three dissenting justices said Pike's arguments warranted further review. The attorney general's office had argued that a last-minute stop harmed the victim's relatives and rewarded "abusive delay tactics" by defense counsel.

Pike acknowledges responsibility for the killing, which drew broad notice because the victim, Slemmer, had a pentagram cut into her body amid wider fears about devil worship at the time. Her advocates point to her age of 18 at the time, mental health issues and prolonged sexual abuse beginning in early childhood.

Her federal defender, Stephen Ferrell, said her capital sentence stands apart because similar sentences for other 18-year-olds in Tennessee were overturned. In a statement submitted with her request for clemency, Pike described herself as a "mentally ill 18-year-old kid" and said understanding the seriousness took years. A filing in the case also argued prison officials should provide emergency medical aid, warning that failure to do so would be "deliberate indifference."