Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Likely to Remain on Death Row, Governor Says

Christa Pike is still likely to face execution, despite surviving Tennessee’s failed attempt to put her to death, Governor Bill Lee said.

Lee addressed Pike’s legal status weeks after prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital during an unsuccessful execution for the 1995 stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

‘As it related to a particular individual like Christa Pike and her crime, she’s still incarcerated under the laws of the State of Tennessee,’ Lee said, WSMV News reported.

‘I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts,’ he added.

Lee spoke as Pike’s attorneys urged him to commute her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

During last month’s botched procedure, the 50-year-old reportedly cried out, ‘My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’ and later asked, ‘Does this happen like that?’

Pike was taken to a hospital with both arms swollen, burned and blistered after the drug was administered. Her attorneys compared the injuries to chemical burns caused by bleach or Drano, a product used to clear blocked household drains and pipes.

Her legal team said they believed defective IV lines caused the pentobarbital to leak into the tissue in her arms instead of entering her bloodstream properly.

Pike has returned to the women’s prison where she spent the past 30 years. Although her attorneys initially feared the failed execution had left her brain-dead, they said she is now able to walk and speak in complete sentences.

Her attorney said Pike’s first words after regaining consciousness at the hospital were, ‘Where am I and who are you?’

Her return to prison nonetheless prompted questions about whether Tennessee would make another attempt to carry out her execution.

Lee, who has suspended executions through the end of the year, indicated that Pike’s death sentence is still expected to remain in place.

A Tennessee judge has also ordered the state to preserve all evidence connected to the failed execution.

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers did not oppose the request. He said there is no active execution order for Pike and maintained that the Department of Correction had already preserved material from the attempt.

Ayers said officials retained log books, observation records, medical waste and products, as well as electrocardiogram readings.

It also recently emerged that local and state police were confused and stunned when prison officials first reported that Pike had survived the execution attempt. One dispatcher reportedly suspected the message was a false report.

Pike was just 18 years old when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.

Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. 

Shipp then carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. He was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.