After surviving two lethal injections, what will happen to Christa Pike?

Con top of all expectations, American inmate Christa Pike, sentenced to the death penalty, survived two lethal injections in the state of Tennessee. Hospitalized, the doctors declared brain death, however, Pike woke up, being “conscious and talking”. But what happens when a convict survives execution?

Christa Pike, now 50, was sentenced to the death penalty in March 1996. The execution was scheduled for September 30th this year and, although it was postponed about an hour earlier, it actually happened. 

It is recalled that Christa Pike was the only woman on death row in the U.S. state of Tennessee.

However, the inmate survived the two lethal injections. In critical condition, Christa Pike was transported by ambulance from prison to a hospital where she has been receiving medical attention. 

Six days later, the inmate is “conscious and talking”, according to lawyers advanced last Tuesday, October 6. The prognosis is still reversed and its legal team predicts that Pike still has a long recovery ahead. 

Allegedly, after waking up, Pike will have asked: “Where I am and who you are.” Inmate lawyer Randy Spivey pointed out that there was still “a lot of mental confusion” and that Christa wanted to know what happened.

The failed execution in Tennessee, however, opened an unprecedented scenario in the United States and raised numerous questions about the case. First of all, whether the sentence of the death penalty is still in place or whether, for example, it can face a second execution. 

So what can happen now?

According to various international media, Christa Pike's sentence is still in force even though the execution is suspended. Now, according to Article 40-23117 of the Tennessee Code, which points out what happens when a person sentenced to the death penalty is not executed “for any reason”, “the sentence is still in force and must be executed by the court in which the prisoner was tried,” states the American People magazine. 

Note, however, that for now there is no new date set for the execution of Pike. It should also be remembered that tennessee governor Bill Lee suspended all executions scheduled for this year, and even requested an investigation into Pike's failed execution.

“ To comply with the legally imposed sentences is among the most important responsibilities of the state, and the people of Tennessee expect this to be done not only in a legal and constitutional way, but also effectively,” Lee said in a statement released by the local media last Monday.

In turn, explains ABC News, Pike's lawyers are pressuring Governor Bill Lee for the death penalty to be commuted to life without a possibility of parole. 

It should be noted that Pike’s legal team considers that a second execution would be “a cruel and unusual punishment” according to the 8th Amendment. 

And what does the Constitution of the United States say?

The Spanish website 20 minutes states that the United States Constitution does not clearly define what should happen when an execution fails and the prisoner survives. Still, there are two safeguards that could be crucial in court if the state of Tennessee understands that Christa Pike should undergo a second execution. 

One is precisely the Eighth Amendment, already mentioned by Christa’s lawyers, which prohibits the application of “ cruel and unusual punishments”. This point is further complemented by the Double Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment that protects the prisoner from further trials or punishments for the same crime. 

The case of Christa Pike

Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old colleague of the Job Corps vocational training program in Knoxville in 1995.

Slemmer was stabbed and beaten to death by Pike and her boyfriend, a colleague of both in the same institution. The case became one of the most mediatic at the time in the United States, especially because the couple recorded a pentagram – a symbol associated with Satan – in the victim's body. 

According to the prosecution, Pike was afraid that Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, so he lured her to a wooded area on January 12, 1995, where he stabbed her with a x-act and assaulted her with a piece of asphalt. Tadaryl Shipp, Pike's boyfriend, admitted to being responsible for recording the pentagram.

The woman was sentenced to the death penalty in March 1996, while her boyfriend received a life sentence, with possibility of parole, for being underage at the time of the murder.