Witness to Christa Pike's execution shares eerie way they all knew she was still alive after curtains closed
One of the members of the media who witnessed the botched execution of Christa Pike says everyone knew she was still alive after the curtains to the execution chamber were closed because they could hear her snoring.
The press are permitted to attend executions and among the group observing it was Catherine Sweeney, who explained in NPR that there were seven reporters invited to watch and cover the death penalty being carried out.
Pike was expected to enter the execution chamber at 10am, but proceedings were delayed by a stay of execution and it was around 6pm when the press were told they could enter their viewing area, which had loudspeakers connected to microphones inside the chamber.
Windows looking into the execution chamber have curtains which are drawn to hide the identities of the people who attach the IV and administer the lethal injection.
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Sweeney, who had attended executions before, explained that typically witnesses will be sat with the curtains closed for between 10 and 15 minutes while the IV line is set up.
The execution team then goes into a hidden chamber where they cannot be seen but can administer the drugs from, the reporter explained that in Pike's case it was about 45 minutes with the curtain closed and the microphones turned off.
"After half an hour, it was clear the IV team must have been struggling," she wrote.
At 7:27pm the curtain was drawn back and they could see Christa Pike on the gurney, facing the other viewing room where prosecutors and the family of the victim sit.
Also in the room was Mikey Noechel, her spiritual advisor, who is allowed to be in the execution chamber as the lethal injection is administered.
Pike said her arm was burning and asked if it was normal, with Sweeney noting that the lethal injection drug is an alkaline that 'burns like drain cleaner if it touches skin' but such a feeling was unlikely if the IV was correctly administered.
The reporter explained that Pike and Noechel were speaking 'for what seemed a shocking amount of time', and that a few minutes after the drugs are administered prisoners tend to show signs of being sedated.
In Tennessee they use the rather abnormal practice of putting a rock on a platform which signals it will be five minutes before they close the curtains and a doctor comes in to pronounce the executed prisoner dead.
The rock was placed at 7:41pm and by 7:44pm Pike was still awake and speaking to Noechel, which was the point Sweeney was convinced 'something was very wrong'.
After the five minutes the curtain closed and Noechel was sent to the witness bay, but then he was asked to return to the execution chamber, a sign that they were going to attempt the execution again with the curtain opening again.
"Pike stopped talking. She started snoring," Sweeney said of the second attempt to administer the lethal injection.
"She continued to snore after the rock was put out the second time and the curtain closed again. We continued to hear her snore over the loudspeaker."
The curtain closed again at 8:16pm and the reporters 'listened to Pike's snoring for 40 minutes', until at 8:53pm when they were told to leave.
When they went out they could see emergency vehicles arriving and one left with its sirens on, a sign that Pike was still alive.
The death row inmate has since been hospitalised, with her lawyers saying she is still on life support.
Joe Harker