Christa Pike’s attorney is urging Tennessee to commute her death sentence, arguing that her “tortuous” failed execution is punishment enough—even for what he called her “awful crime.”
Stephen Ferrell has asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to prevent any further execution attempts if Pike survives the critical illness that followed Wednesday’s botched double-injection execution. Pike had been scheduled to die for the 1995 murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
“This has been a serious punishment for a very serious and awful crime,” Ferrell, an assistant federal defender, told CNN on Sunday.
“I don’t think that attempting another execution is going to bring justice.”
Gov. Lee has suspended all executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year, but he has not ruled out a future attempt to put Pike to death.
Still, Ferrell said it remains far too early to know whether Pike will recover from the failed execution.
“She’s still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill,” Ferrell told CNN.
“We don’t really know the prognosis yet, and may not for several days. We don’t know what her physical state will be, but it is clear that she has endured a tortuous attempt at executing her.
“I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is—as in, the long-term prognosis. If she recovers, she may not fully recover.
“There may be issues about her competence. We just don’t know any of this.”
Pike’s legal team says problems with the intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital doses to enter her body rather than flow properly into her bloodstream.
According to court documents, her attorneys criticized Tennessee officials for failing to identify and correct the problem.
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“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote in a court filing.
Pike was strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution when the two doses were administered.
After receiving the second dose, Pike reported a “burning” sensation and asked whether it was normal, according to journalists who witnessed the attempted execution.
Pike was sentenced to death for killing Slemmer, whom she lured with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, to an isolated location near the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Slemmer was assaulted and tortured with a box cutter. A pentagram was carved into her chest while she was still alive.
Pike was 18 when the crime occurred and was sentenced to death for the murder. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a sentence of life plus 25 years, with the possibility of parole.
Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has said she was a “mentally ill 18-year-old kid” when the murder took place.
Shipp was denied parole in October 2025 “due to the seriousness of the offense,” WCNC reported. His case will not be eligible for review again until October 2031.
Here’s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:
Gov. Lee said he was “highly disappointed” by the botched execution and called for a “thorough, and comprehensive and third-party review and investigation” of the state’s protocol.
Frank Strada, the Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner, will step down later this month.
With Post wires.