Christa Pike could still face execution after surviving two failed attempts, provided she recovers and is able to understand the punishment awaiting her, legal experts said.
The 50-year-old convicted murderer was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries on Wednesday. Instead, she survived two unsuccessful lethal-injection attempts and remains unconscious in critical condition while receiving emergency treatment at a hospital.
“She can’t be executed if she is brain injured and doesn’t understand the proceedings,” Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham School of Law, told The Post.
Denno pointed to a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court case involving a prisoner with dementia, saying the court established that a person cannot be executed if they do not understand the punishment they are about to receive.
If Pike survives and doctors determine that she is mentally competent, however, Denno said her attorneys could make a “strong argument” under the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, which bars someone from being punished twice for the same offense.
That argument could potentially support a recommendation that Pike remain in prison for life instead of receiving the death penalty for the 1995 killing of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, who prosecutors said was murdered during a jealous outburst, Denno said.
Pike’s legal team has urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence. Lee suspended executions in the state and ordered an independent investigation following this week’s failed execution.
Michael Meltsner, an emeritus professor at Northeastern University School of Law, said he was skeptical that the governor would grant clemency, citing the severity of the crime and Lee’s apparent concern for Slemmer’s family.
“For instance, the governor could commute her sentence to 30 years in jail, but that’s unlikely to happen here,” Meltsner said.
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Here’s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:
In court filings submitted before the execution attempt, Pike said she had a “history of difficulty with blood draws and needle insertion,” according to her attorneys.
Because of her concerns about Tennessee’s lethal-injection process, she asked the state to use hanging instead. That request was denied.
Tennessee law identifies lethal injection as the state’s standard execution method. Prisoners convicted of crimes committed before Jan. 1, 1999, may instead choose the electric chair.
Pike declined the electric chair, citing her Buddhist faith.
If authorities pursue another execution date, Denno said Pike’s attorneys could renew their request for a different method.
“She could be executed using a different method of execution, and she has a very good argument that lethal injection, in her case and with her particular medical situation, simply doesn’t work,” Denno said.
“However, the state could reject all her arguments and just set a new execution date using lethal injection again.”
In a statement to The Post on Friday, Pike’s attorneys said she “remains hospitalized” and is “critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator.”
