Advocates have been working to stall or stop Wednesday’s execution of Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, though state officials show no sign that it will be halted.
Only action by Gov. Bill Lee or a federal court can stop the execution. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it would not step in. Lee has not made any public statement yet on the matter.
Meanwhile, groups around the world have issued public statements asking for a reprieve in the case. A weekend panel in Nashville brought together doctors to discuss the medical implications of the death penalty.
Pike’s attorneys filed a 226-page clemency petition for her two weeks ago, a document called “Mercy for Christa Pike.” They also petitioned the state Supreme Court to intervene in the matter.
Her lawyers told the court she had medical conditions like thrombocytosis and small veins, both of which could bring unnecessary risk and pain to the lethal-injection procedure, they said. The court disagreed.
Lawyers said moving Pike to Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Prison two weeks before her execution could trigger a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder based on a history of sexual assault. Specifically, being under watch by male prison officials could cause illness or needless suffering.
The court said the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) had made accommodations for this. She won’t be moved to Riverbend earlier than 24 hours before her execution. She’ll be the only prisoner on the Capital Punishment Unit while she’s there and TDOC will “make every effort” to assign female guards to Pike.
Instead of the state’s controversial lethal injection protocol, Pike asked if she could be hanged instead. Doctors testified that hanging can be instantaneous if it snaps the neck. If not, strangulation can take one minute after the 10 to 20 seconds it takes for the body to lose consciousness. The court denied this method because of the variability and that no other state or countries have hanging protocols.
Doctors testified that the pentobarbital used in Tennessee’s execution protocol causes death “almost instantly” in 65 percent-70 percent of inmates. Asked how long an inmate could be conscious during the execution, Pike’s expert, Dr. Joel Zivot, said it could be minutes but that no one really knew.
The state Supreme Court said it would only step in if Pike could prove her arguments against her execution would stand up in another court. They said she was “unlikely to succeed” and denied her motion for a stay of execution.
A physician speaking at a panel by Tennessee for the Alternative for the Death Penalty (TDAP) in Nashville Saturday evening said using drugs in lethal injections is meant to give “the impression that doctors are somewhat complicit” in the act. But, Dr. John Greer, said “that could not be further from the truth.”
“It’s an attempt to sanitize … state-sanctioned murder,” Greer said. “It is cruel and unusual and a violation of the Eighth Amendment.”
“It’s an attempt to sanitize … state-sanctioned murder.”
Dr. john Greer
The state keeps secrets around how the get the drugs for the procedures, he said. To carry out an execution, doctors should be present, but oaths taken and the rules of many medical societies won’t allow them to cooperate.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Jobs Corps worker from Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 19 years old when the crime occurred in a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.
At the time, she was the youngest person on death row at age 21. On March 30, 1996, Pike entered the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women).
On August 24, 2001, while incarcerated, Pike was convicted of attempted first degree murder in the assault on inmate Patricia Jones, TDOC said.
If her execution continues, she’ll be moved Tuesday from the Debra K. Johnson facility on to Riverbend.
