Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee suggested that convicted murderer Christa Pike’s death sentence will likely remain the same unless challenged by the courts — one month after her failed execution.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the beating and stabbing death of her classmate Colleen Slemmer in January 1995, but was rushed to the hospital after surviving the double dose of the lethal injection drug she received September 30.
Lee, a Republican, was asked Wednesday whether the state will try to execute Pike again, or if he would instead commute her sentence to life in prison.
“As it relates to a particular individual like Christa Pike and her crime, she’s still incarcerated under the laws of the State of Tennessee,” Lee said. “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”
Lee halted executions in the state through the end of the year as officials investigate what went wrong in Pike’s killing. Her case has raised questions about her medical and legal future, and her attorneys say her prognosis remains unclear as she recovers.
As the execution was underway, Pike was asked if she had a final statement and spoke of being at peace. However, minutes later she said her arm hurt. She later lost consciousness and media witnesses were escorted out of the execution room.
An ambulance was then called and rushed PIke to the hospital.
Pike awoke following the botched execution with no memory of her ordeal and was “angry and confused” about what had happened to her.
She was discharged from the hospital on October 10 and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was housed for 30 years and is continuing to receive care, her attorneys said earlier this month.
“She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,” her attorneys said.
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.
Frank Strada, the state’s commissioner for the Department of Correction, has meanwhile announced his resignation as anti-death penalty activists call for Pike’s sentence to be commuted to life without the possibility of parole and for an end to capital punishment in the United States.
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