Christa Pike’s Death Sentence Faces New Test After Prison Return

Christa Pike could be spared execution if the two doses of pentobarbital she survived caused lasting cognitive impairment, according to Deborah Denno, a leading U.S. expert on capital punishment.

“Her attorney stated that she still seems a little confused about things and is not clear on, doesn’t have a clear memory of what happened to her,” said Denno, a Fordham Law professor and capital punishment specialist. “If that continues, that it could be very difficult for the state to execute her for that reason alone. In other words, you have to understand why you’re getting a punishment and also connect that to whatever crime you committed.”

Denno added that “we also don’t execute people who have intellectual disabilities.”

Courts have prohibited the execution of people with intellectual disabilities and prisoners whose cognitive impairments prevent them from understanding why they are being put to death, Denno told News Outlet. She cited a 2019 Supreme Court ruling involving an inmate with dementia who could no longer remember the crime committed.

Pike was scheduled to die on Sept. 30 after the Supreme Court lifted a last-minute stay. She was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. The two women knew each other from the Jobs Corps Center, a vocational school.

Pike’s next legal steps remain uncertain, and state officials have not publicly said what they plan to do. Several possibilities remain open.

Gov. Bill Lee could commute her sentence to life in prison without parole. Lee has already imposed a statewide moratorium on executions for at least the remainder of the year. Even with that pause in place, Denno said a gubernatorial commutation appears unlikely.

If Tennessee officials pursue another death warrant, Pike would likely face another round of litigation, Denno said.

“It could go up to the Tennessee Supreme Court, could make that decision of whether she’s going to get life in prison or whether there’s going to be another execution or attempted execution,” she said. “If there’s going to be another attempt at an execution, that could go several ways as well.”

Pike’s attorneys could also raise a double-jeopardy argument, according to Denno.

“In other words, that she has already received the state’s punishment — from A to Z, they injected the drugs, she received the drug, they did everything they needed to do to actually execute someone — and she just simply didn’t happen to die,” Denno said. “But that’s on the state and how they chose to do this — or their incompetence.”

That claim would have to be resolved by the courts. If it fails, another question would remain: Which execution method could Tennessee use if Pike faces execution again?

“Are you gonna try to use lethal injection again? I think her attorneys have the best argument we’ve ever seen that that was cruel and unusual, in which case Christa Pike did ask for two other potential methods of execution: hanging and the firing squad,” Denno said. “So they could go in that direction.”

Pike has since been released from the hospital and returned to prison following what her attorneys called a “remarkable” physical recovery. She is the only known person in the modern era to survive an attempted lethal injection.