Christa Pike’s Death Sentence Faces New Test After Botched Execution

Christa Pike could avoid execution if the two doses of pentobarbital she survived caused lasting cognitive damage, according to one of the country’s leading death-penalty experts.

Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law professor who studies capital punishment, said Pike’s attorney has reported that she remains confused and has little or no clear memory of the botched execution. “If that continues, it could be very difficult for the state to execute her for that reason alone,” Denno told News Media. “You have to understand why you’re being punished and connect that punishment to the crime you committed.”

Denno also noted that executions are prohibited for people with intellectual disabilities.

Courts have blocked executions involving intellectually disabled prisoners and inmates whose cognitive impairments prevent them from understanding why they are facing death, Denno said. She cited a 2019 Supreme Court decision involving a prisoner with dementia who could no longer remember the crime.

Pike had been scheduled for execution Sept. 30, after the Supreme Court lifted a last-minute stay. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Jobs Corps Center vocational program in Knoxville.

Pike’s next steps remain uncertain. State officials have not publicly disclosed how they intend to proceed, leaving several possible outcomes on the table.

Gov. Bill Lee could commute Pike’s sentence to life without parole, although he has already placed a moratorium on Tennessee executions through at least the end of the year. Even with that pause in place, Denno said a gubernatorial commutation appears unlikely.

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If Tennessee officials seek a new death warrant, the move would probably trigger another legal challenge, Denno said.

The case could ultimately reach the Tennessee Supreme Court, which may have to decide whether Pike remains imprisoned for life or faces another execution attempt, she said. “If there’s going to be another attempt at an execution, that could go several ways as well.”

Pike’s legal team could also argue that trying to execute her again would violate protections against double jeopardy, Denno said.

The theory is that Pike has already endured the state’s punishment: Officials administered the drugs, she received them and the state completed the steps intended to kill her. “She just simply didn’t happen to die,” Denno said, adding that the failure resulted from the state’s chosen method or its incompetence.

That argument would have to be resolved by the courts. If it fails, officials would then face another difficult question: how should a second execution be carried out?

“Are you going to try to use lethal injection again?” Denno asked. Pike’s attorneys may have their strongest argument yet that repeating the method would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Pike has identified hanging and a firing squad as two possible alternatives, Denno said, meaning the state could pursue one of those methods instead.

Pike has since left the hospital and returned to prison following what her attorneys called a “remarkable” physical recovery. She is the only person known to have survived a lethal injection attempt in the modern era.