Tennessee Faces Legal Questions Over Whether Christa Pike Can Be Executed Again

Tennessee may try again to execute Christa Pike, but legal experts say the state would likely face serious constitutional challenges. Earlier this month, an attempt to put the convicted murderer to death failed, and it remains unclear whether officials will make another try.

"We're really in uncharted territory about what's going to happen next," said Emily Hughes, a University of Iowa law professor who specializes in death penalty cases. She added that the possible legal paths are complex and numerous.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital given by lethal injection. She was sentenced for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of Colleen Slemmer, a classmate. The attempt left Pike unconscious and on a ventilator with severe arm injuries. She was hospitalized and has since returned to the prison where she is serving her sentence. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, seven people have survived failed lethal injection attempts when staff could not establish IV lines, but Pike is the first to survive after being injected with lethal doses.

Pike was 18 in January 1995 when she, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and a third companion lured Slemmer into a wooded area near their Knoxville Job Corps vocational centre. They tortured and killed her, carving a pentagram into her chest and taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir.

After the failed execution, Gov. Bill Lee halted further executions for the rest of the year and ordered a comprehensive third-party review of what happened. A Tennessee judge has also ordered that all evidence from the attempt be preserved for a full investigation.

Pike's mental state could be a major factor. Her lawyers said on Oct. 7 that she was talking but had trouble with concentration and memory, and that it could "take months to fully understand whether she sustained lasting cognitive injuries." Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno noted that the U.S. Supreme Court bars executing people with certain intellectual disabilities, and also people who do not understand why they are being punished. Hughes said the test is whether Pike is aware of and understands the reason for the punishment.

The governor's office may also decide the matter. Lee's term ends on Jan. 16, 2027, and he could commute Pike's sentence to life in prison before then. However, he denied her clemency request last month and, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, has never commuted a death sentence for anyone in Tennessee slated for execution. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running to succeed him, suggested Pike should face the electric chair, which she said she would bring back as an execution method if elected. Democratic candidate and city councillor Jerri Green opposes the death penalty and said she would impose a moratorium.

Pike's attorneys could argue that a second attempt would amount to double jeopardy under the Fifth Amendment. "Given that she has already been subject to lethal injection, she has been punished, even though she didn't die," Hughes said. Denno called the argument "a strong one in her case." The state could respond that the sentence was death and Pike is still alive, so another attempt would not be a second punishment.

The defence could also invoke the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Denno said one standard is whether a method creates a substantial risk of severe pain, and said there is "tons of evidence" of that in Pike's case. The state could point to the 1946 case of Willie Francis, who survived a malfunctioning electric chair in Louisiana. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed a second attempt, noting that "accidents happen for which no man is to blame." Hughes said the defence could counter that standards of decency have evolved since then.