Lawyer says Christa Pike is in critical condition after failed execution

Pike was 18 when she and two others tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in January 1995. She was sentenced to death in 1996. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, told the BBC she still supports Pike’s execution. [8] [9] [10]

Pike’s lawyers have asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole. They have also applied to the US Supreme Court for a stay, challenging the use of lethal injection and the rules governing how Pike can contest that method. Tennessee’s Supreme Court denied a stay on 23 September; the US Supreme Court application was filed two days later. [9] [4] [2] [3]

A brief filed in support of Pike by trauma and sexual-violence experts argues that the execution risks causing her to relive sexual assaults she suffered when younger. It cites diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. Pike has requested an all-female execution team. Tennessee has said it aims to use female guards for her transfer to the execution prison, but has not guaranteed that arrangement. [6] [8]

Jurors at Pike’s trial heard testimony about her difficult childhood and a diagnosis of severe borderline personality disorder. A federal appeals court later upheld the rejection of her claim that failings by her lawyers at sentencing had prejudiced her case. Pike was also convicted of attempting to murder a fellow prisoner after a 2001 incident and received a concurrent 25-year sentence. [8] [5] [7]

As of 26 September, the US Supreme Court docket listed no decision on Pike’s stay application. Her clemency request to Governor Lee remains another possible route to stopping the scheduled execution. [3] [9]

Update

Governor Bill Lee said he had considered Christa Pike’s clemency request and would not intervene in her death sentence. Her lawyers had asked for the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on 30 September, and her attorneys have petitioned the US Supreme Court to stop it. [11]

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her attorneys argued that Pike’s age — 18 at the time of the crime — should weigh against her execution. They also said Lee’s decision left questions about Tennessee’s execution protocol unanswered. [11]

Slemmer’s mother wants the execution to go ahead. If it takes place, Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. [11]

Update

The US Supreme Court denied Christa Gail Pike’s application for a stay of execution on 29 September. It also refused her petition for a writ of certiorari, a request for the court to review her case. The docket entry gives no reasons for the decisions and records no dissent. [12]

Tennessee’s Department of Correction had scheduled Pike’s execution for 10am Central Daylight Time on 30 September. [1]

Update

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit voted 2–1 to pause Christa Gail Pike’s execution on Wednesday, 30 September. The order came at about 9am local time, after witnesses had gathered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [14] [16]

The court said a short stay would give it time to consider legal arguments over Pike’s sentencing. Her lawyers argue that allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not presented to the jury before she was sentenced to death in 1996. Judge Richard Griffin dissented, arguing that the review repeated an appeal barred by federal law. [15] [14]

The intervention followed the US Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to deny Pike a stay of execution and refuse to hear her case. Tennessee has since asked the Supreme Court to lift the new stay, WVLT reported. [17] [14]

The appeals court ordered the execution paused until further notice; the order did not overturn Pike’s conviction or death sentence. The Supreme Court had not responded to Tennessee’s request by the time of WVLT’s report. [18] [14]

Update

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had halted Pike’s execution shortly before it was due to take place. Its 2–1 decision allowed time to consider whether allegations that Pike was sexually abused and raped as a child had been fully weighed before she was sentenced to death. [19]

Tennessee then applied to the Supreme Court to lift the stay. Warden Kenneth Nelsen argued that Pike was unlikely to succeed because her claim had already been raised without success. The Supreme Court’s docket records the application. [19] [20]

The Supreme Court majority gave no explanation for its decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, saying the ruling prevented the appeals court from giving Pike’s claim due consideration. Whether the execution took place after the ruling remains unclear. [19]

Update

Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Gail Pike by lethal injection on 30 September. Witnesses said she was still breathing when they were escorted from the viewing room at 8.53pm local time. Her lawyers said she had received two doses of pentobarbital. [25] [16]

Pike’s lawyers alleged in a filing with Tennessee’s Supreme Court that she had not lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat and was suffering unnecessarily. [23] The Tennessee Department of Correction said she had been taken to an off-site medical facility. Her legal team later said she was being treated at a nearby hospital, but that it had not been told her condition. [24] A lawyer told the BBC that she had received life-saving treatment, ANP reported. [23]

The corrections department said staff had followed the state’s approved execution protocol, which allowed no further procedures that evening. Pike’s lawyers raised concerns about vein access and the quality of the drug used. [24] [16]

Update

Dutch documentary filmmaker Jessica Villerius says she spent 15 hours outside a Tennessee prison on the day of Christa Pike’s attempted execution, receiving no information from justice officials while she waited. Nieuws.nl reported her account from Instagram, where she described it as one of the strangest filming days of her nearly 20-year career. [26]

Villerius said she saw ambulances and fire engines speeding towards the execution building. She also described the six execution witnesses at a press conference as visibly shaken and appalled. Tennessee authorities said Pike was still alive after the attempt, Nieuws.nl reported. [26]

Villerius is following Pike for a documentary that Nieuws.nl says is planned for release in 2027. [26]

Update

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has called off the state’s one remaining execution scheduled for 2026 after an attempt to execute Christa Gail Pike by lethal injection failed on 30 September. He has also ordered a third-party review of what happened. [16]

Media witnesses said they could hear Pike breathing and snoring until they were told to leave at about 8.53pm. The Tennessee Department of Correction said she was taken to an off-site medical facility. Her lawyers later said she was receiving hospital treatment. [25] [28] [31]

Pike’s lawyers said two syringes of the execution drug pentobarbital had been administered. The department said it had followed its approved protocol; the lawyers alleged difficulties accessing Pike’s veins and raised concerns about the drug’s condition. What caused the attempt to fail remains unclear. [16] [28] [31]

A Tennessee Supreme Court order had set Gary Wayne Sutton’s execution for 3 December, a date covered by Lee’s decision. The cancellation concerns executions scheduled for this year, not Tennessee’s death penalty itself. [30] [16]

Update

Governor Bill Lee said he had ordered a third-party review of Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike on 30 September. The state’s remaining scheduled execution will not take place in 2026, the Associated Press reported. [16]

The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed that Pike had been taken to an off-site medical facility. Her lawyers said they had not been told her condition as of 10:40 pm local time that night. [28] [31]

Media witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered by 8:26 pm. They said they could still hear snoring behind a closed curtain until the microphone was switched off at 8:53 pm. [16]

The correction department said it had followed its approved execution protocol, which permitted no further procedures. Pike’s lawyers said their concerns about vein access, the drug and emergency medical care had been borne out. [28] [31]

Update

Execution witnesses said a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered by 8.26pm local time on 30 September. They continued to hear Christa Pike snoring behind a curtain until the microphone was switched off at 8.53pm. Her lawyers said she still had a heartbeat. She was taken to hospital for medical care, but her condition has not been disclosed. [16] [31] [37]

Tennessee’s published protocol calls for a medical examination after an initial set of injections, followed by a backup set if the prisoner is still alive. It does not specify a further set after that, although it allows the corrections commissioner to authorise deviations. [36]

Pike’s lawyers allege that difficulties accessing her veins and degraded pentobarbital contributed to the failed execution. The Tennessee Department of Correction says it followed every step of its protocol and that the drug specified in it has consistently been effective. [37] [28]

Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert retained by Pike’s lawyers, told the BBC that she probably did not reach a blood level of pentobarbital high enough to stop her breathing and heart. He said brain injury was very possible because of what he described as a delay before resuscitation began. [34]

Governor Bill Lee has said Tennessee’s only other execution scheduled for 2026 will not take place this year. Authorities have not said whether they will seek another execution date for Pike. [16] [34]

Update

Christa Pike’s lawyer, Randall Spivey, said on Thursday that her defence team had been told she was in critical condition and receiving life-saving care after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection. The Tennessee Department of Correction said Pike had been taken to an off-site medical facility after the attempt. [38] [28]

Spivey said the lawyers had little recent information about Pike’s health and no sense of her prognosis, but knew she was alive. The defence team said it had not been able to see or speak to her since she was hospitalised. [39] [40]

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