Lawyers are urging Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute Pike’s death sentence to life in prison after an execution attempt left her in critical condition.
Death row inmate Christa Pike was hospitalized in critical condition after surviving a botched execution in Tennessee on Wednesday night, prompting her lawyers to urge Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison.
Pike, 50, is receiving “lifesaving medical care” after staying alive through two doses of lethal injection drugs, her defense team said Thursday. “We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment,” attorney Randy Spivey said at a news conference. “But we know she is alive right now.”
Pike was convicted of murder in the 1995 fatal stabbing of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike, who was 18 at the time, did not dispute helping kill Slemmer, though supporters pointed to childhood abuse and post-crime diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, received life in prison with the possibility of parole because he was a minor, and lookout Shadolla Peterson testified for the state and avoided the death penalty.
What happened in the chamber
Tennessee switched in 2024 to a single drug, pentobarbital, for lethal injections. In the execution chamber Wednesday, Pike said she was at peace and “ready to be free,” adding, “This is a happy day.” But after receiving a dose of pentobarbital, she remained conscious and complained of pain in her arm.
Witnesses reported that officials administered a second dose of pentobarbital an hour after first raising the curtains. Pike could be heard snoring behind a closed curtain until the microphone was cut off nearly 30 minutes later, before she was taken to a hospital.
Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robin Maher called the failed execution “completely unprecedented,” saying no one in the country had ever stayed alive after receiving lethal doses of execution drugs. Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Review ordered and executions paused
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking an immediate halt to the execution, arguing she suffered “unnecessary agony” and that another attempt would violate her right against cruel and unusual punishment. Maher and roughly 25,000 people who signed a pre-execution petition have also urged Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison.
Lee called the execution “deeply disturbing” and ordered an independent third-party review of the procedure. He also halted any further efforts to execute Pike as well as the state’s other execution scheduled this year.
