Christa Pike remains in critical condition in hospital after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during her scheduled execution in Tennessee on 30 September. The state has not said whether it will try to execute her again, but legal experts have begun explaining how that could happen and what stands in the way.
The one way it could happen
According to experts quoted by the New York Post, the route back to the execution chamber depends on Pike surviving without a brain injury and being mentally competent. Professor Deborah Denno of Fordham School of Law said: "She can't be executed if she is brain injured and doesn't understand the proceedings." She pointed to a 2019 US Supreme Court case involving a man with dementia, in which the court recognised that someone who is not aware of the punishment they are about to receive cannot be executed. If Pike recovers fully and is found competent, Tennessee could in theory seek a new execution date.
The obstacles
Even then, Denno said Pike could "have a strong argument for double jeopardy." Double jeopardy is the constitutional protection against being punished more than once for the same offence, under the Fifth Amendment. If that argument succeeded, her death sentence for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer could potentially be reduced to life imprisonment. Michael Meltsner, Emeritus Professor at Northeastern University School of Law, told the Post he doubts that would happen given the nature of the crime. None of this has been tested in court.
What her lawyers could argue
If a new date were set, her lawyers could challenge lethal injection again and ask for a different method, particularly as they now have a stronger argument that it is unsuitable for her. Before the execution, they had warned that accessing her veins could be difficult because of a blood condition called thrombocytosis. Pike had reportedly asked for hanging as an alternative, but that request was denied. The Post reports the electric chair could technically be an option because her crime was committed before 1999, but that she had previously rejected it because of her Buddhist beliefs.
Where things stand
Her lawyer Stephen Ferrell told CNN on Sunday: "We don't know what her physical state will be, but it is clear that she has endured a tortuous attempt at executing her, and we had already asked that the governor commute her for many good reasons. She's spent over 30 years in prison, most of that in solitary confinement, only to be taken out and not executed, but tried to execute her. We don't know right now, and we may never know, what kind of torture she endured during that process." The Tennessee Department of Correction maintains it followed every step of its established protocol. Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review and paused all remaining executions in the state this year.
Background on her case
Pike was 18 when she murdered Slemmer and was sentenced to death in 1996, aged 20. Her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted but could not be sentenced to death because he was 17. Her lawyers' clemency petition set out her traumatic childhood, including evidence that her mother drank heavily while pregnant, which they say affected Pike's brain development and impulse control, as well as documented childhood abuse. Had the execution succeeded, she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
