The internet is abuzz over the botched execution of Christa Pike via lethal injection. She was twice injected with pentobarbital, a drug used in veterinary euthanasia and adopted by Tennessee as a replacement for the older sequence of anesthetic, paralytic, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. There had been outcry that insufficient anesthetic might leave the murderer able to feel pain while dying, leading to manufacturers' refusal to sell the drugs for executions. Pentobarbital is expected to quickly cause unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, and death.
The Response
When the drugs failed to kill Christa Pike, she was rushed to the hospital and provided with emergency care. As of this writing, October 9, 2026, she is awake and alert and people are complaining that she's being treated cruelly because she's still being treated like a prisoner rather than a victim.
Why Was Christa Slated for Death?
In January of 1995, Christa Pike was 18 years old, living at a Job Corps center. Pike was convinced that a classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Pike enlisted the help of Shipp and another Job Corps student, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, to kill Colleen.
Colleen Slemmer
Pike took a piece of Colleen's skull as a souvenir and showed it off to classmates, describing what she had done to the teen she had viewed as a rival for Tadaryl Shipp's affections.
This brazenness, of course, led to her arrest, conviction, and death sentence.
Other Botched Executions
The botched execution of Christa Pike made me think of other botched executions: those of babies whose only crime was being in the womb of an unwelcoming mother. Let's look at how those botched executions were handled.
Baby Rowan. Rowan's mother, Angele, was pressured into an unwanted abortion. She went to EPOC Clinic of Orlando Women's Center. The lethal injection that was supposed to kill Rowan failed, and he was born alive in the clinic toilet. Upon seeing that her baby was alive, Angele begged staff to call an ambulance for her baby. They refused, so she called a friend and asked her to send an ambulance while she tended to her son. When the ambulance crew came, staff said that there was no live baby, just a patient who was hysterical, and sent them away. Once they were certain that Rowan had died, they demanded that Angle give them his body. She refused, so they called police to expel her from the facility.
Sarah Brown. In the summer of 1993, Dr. George Tiller twice injected potassium chloride directly into her brain. When Sarah was born alive at 36 weeks of gestation, she was not rushed to a hospital. She was wrapped in a blanket and left unattended for 24 hours before a nurse intervened and said that Sarah should be provided with care. Severely brain damaged, Sarah lost her vision and would never walk or talk. She died five years later, on September 28, 1998.
Shanice Osbourne. Shanice's mother went to an abortion clinic in Hialeah, Florida on the second day of her two-day abortion. She delivered Shanice alive. According to a police affidavit, the baby's mother "observed the baby moving and gasping for air for approximately five (5) minutes. The staff began screaming that the baby was alive; at which time, Ms. Belkis Gonzalez cut the umbilical cord, threw it into a red bag with black printing. Ms. Gonzalez then swept the baby, with her hands, into the same red bag along with the gauze used during the procedure." Gonzales then tossed the bag, with Shanice inside it, onto the clinic roof to conceal her body from the police. A clinic worker informed the police, who recovered the child's body. An autopsy found that Shanice's lungs contained gas bubbles and floated, proving that she was alive and breathing before being stuffed into a biohazard bag and tossed onto the roof to die in the hot Florida sun.
Unnamed West Penn Baby Boy. A woman was turned down for an abortion at a Pittsburgh hospital because they estimated her pregnancy to be 26 - 31 weeks. She went to West Penn Hospital, where Dr. Leonard Laufe diagnosed her as 20 to 22 weeks pregnant and charged ahead. "The abortion, induced by an injection of prostaglandin, a substance that stimulates muscle contraction and delivery of the fetus, was filmed for use as an instructional film. The film showed the three-pound infant moving and gasping." The baby was not cared for and, of course, died. ("The Dreaded Complication," Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1981)
Baby W. This little girl weighed 2 lb 8 oz when she was born on March 2, 1977 during a botched saline abortion at Westminster Community Hospital. She was about 30 to 32 weeks of gestation. A nurse brought her to the hospital nursery, then summoned Dr. William Baxter Waddill, who had initiated the abortion. He strangled the baby in the hospital nursery in front of multiple witnesses.
Vanessa S. On October 3, 1984, Dr. Enrique Gerbi tried to kill Vanessa by replacing the amniotic fluid protecting her with a strong sterile salt solution. The following day Vanessa was born alive at around 12:30 am. She was put in a bucket and left crying, cold, and alone. At some point a nurse noticed that Vanessa was still alive and started to provide the baby with care. She was left with severe disabilities.
Unnamed Philadelphia Baby. An August 2, 1981 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer said that in July of 1979, Dr. Boyd Cooper performed an abortion at 23 weeks at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The 1 lb 2 oz infant boy gasped and tried to breathe. No efforts were made to revive the infant due to the parents' wishes and the infant's size. The baby was placed in a utility room used as an infant morgue. Cooper instructed nurse, "Leave the baby there -- it will die." The nurse testified that the baby was still gasping in the closet when she returned to work 12 hours later. Cooper then finally agreed to allow the baby to be transferred to intensive care, where he died 4 days later.
Unnamed Omaha Baby Boy. An unnamed woman was at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for a saline abortion in September of 1979. She screamed when her baby emerged alive instead of dead, weighing 2 1/2 pounds and moving and crying. A nurse put the baby on the stainless steel drainboard of a sink in the dirty utility room. The head nurse called Dr. C.J. LaBenz, who had initiated the abortion, asking for instructions. He said to leave the baby alone and it would probably die in a few minutes. It took the child 2 hours and 15 minutes to die. ("The Dreaded Complication," Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1981)
There are more stories of abortion survivors in the following posts:
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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.
Sherlock has pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims. But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.
If you would like to help, please click the following link:
https://www.givesendgo.com/stop-pp-from-profiteering-from-the-rapes
Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.
Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.
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