Christa Pike in critical condition; attorneys demand commutation after failed Tennessee execution

Lee halts state executions through year’s end, orders independent review

Christa Pike, Tennessee’s only female death row inmate, remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday, a day after the state failed to execute her, and her attorneys publicly called on Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey of the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender said his client was receiving life-saving care. “The state of Tennessee has shown us again that they are not capable of carrying out an execution consistent with basic human dignity,” Spivey said. “Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel and it was torturous.”

Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the 1995 murder of fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

The state administered two doses of pentobarbital, each intended to be lethal, before Pike was rushed to the hospital, where she was observed still alive, breathing and snoring, her attorneys said. Spivey, who was present for the failed execution, said the execution team spent about an hour attempting to establish an IV line in Pike’s left arm and that he counted at least seven needles being used. One needle appeared bent when it was removed, he said.

Media witnesses reported following the attempted execution that the procedure was abnormal and took longer than expected.

Spivey and Pike’s other lawyers had warned the state and the courts that her medical conditions — including the blood disorder thrombocytosis, small and compromised veins, post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from childhood sexual abuse, and bipolar disorder — would cause her an agonizing death.

The failed execution was the second by the state this year. Lee ordered an independent review of Wednesday’s failure and halted executions in the state for the remainder of the year.

That step does not go far enough, Spivey said. “After having endured solitary confinement for more than 20 years and a full attempt to kill her by lethal injection, Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the Amercian death penalty,” he said. “The governor must commute Christa’s sentence now.”

Pike was convicted in 1996 of the murder of Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, on Jan. 12, 1995. Her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, receiving a life sentence and a 25-year sentence. Shadolla Peters, who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, received six years of probation.

Pike was initially scheduled to be executed Wednesday morning, but an appeals court issued a last-minute stay to consider her request to reopen her case. The U.S. Supreme Court, with all three liberal justices dissenting, lifted the stay, allowing the state to proceed with the evening execution.

Her defense in the years since has argued that her trial lawyers failed to adequately present mitigating evidence of her mental health conditions and history of childhood sexual abuse, rape and neglect.