Christa Pike will likely still remain on death row even after botched execution, governor says

Christa Pike will likely still be executed despite surviving a botched attempt to put her to death, Tennessee‘s governor revealed.

Governor Bill Lee addressed whether Pike would still face the death penalty weeks after Tennessee officials administered two doses of pentobarbital in a failed attempt to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. 

‘As it related to a particular individual like Christa Pike and her crime, she’s still incarcerated under the laws of the State of Tennessee,’ Lee said, WSMV News reported.

‘I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts,’ he added.

The governor’s comments came amid calls from Pike’s legal team for him to replace her death sentence with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. 

During last month’s shocking procedure, Pike, 50, reportedly cried out: ‘My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,’ before asking at another point: ‘Does this happen like that?’

When she was later taken to hospital, both arms were swollen, burned and blistered from the drug. Her attorneys likened the damage to exposure to bleach or Drano, the chemical used to clear clogged household drains and pipes.

Her lawyers said they believed faulty IV lines had caused the pentobarbital to flow into the tissue of her arms rather than directly into her bloodstream.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (pictured) said Christa Pike will likely still be executed despite surviving a botched attempt to put her to death last month

Lee’s comments come weeks after Tennessee officials administered two doses of pentobarbital in a failed attempt to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer

The governor’s comments came amid calls from Pike’s legal team for him to replace her death sentence with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (pictured: execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee)

Pike was just 18 years old when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp

Pike has since returned to the women’s prison where she spent 30 years. Despite initial fears that the failed execution had left her brain-dead, she can now walk and speak in full sentences, according to her attorneys.

‘Where am I and who are you?’ were her first words after waking up in the hospital, her attorney said in a press conference.

But Pike’s return behind bars raised questions about whether Tennessee would make another attempt to execute her. 

Governor Lee, who has paused executions through the end of the year, indicated that Pike’s death sentence is still likely to stand. 

Meanwhile, a Tennessee judge has since ordered the state to preserve all evidence from her failed execution.

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers did not object to the request, noting there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisting that the Department of Correction has already preserved the evidence from her attempted execution.

He added that log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved. 

It was recently revealed that local and state police were left confused and incredulous after prison officials first reported that Pike survived her execution attempt – with one dispatcher even believing it was a false report.

Pike was just 18 years old when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.

Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. 

Shipp then carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. He was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.