The state’s Catholic bishops implore Gov. Lee to commute Christa Pike’s sentence
By Deacon Bob Hunt
On Sept. 30, after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee refused her clemency, prison officials at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville carried out the state’s attempt to execute Christa Pike. An IV was obtained in the 50-year-old Ms. Pike and a lethal dose of pentobarbitol was injected into her vein.
Even still, Ms. Pike continued to breathe and have a heartbeat. The all-female team of executioners administered a second lethal dose of pentobarbitol. Amazingly, Ms. Pike continued to breathe and have a heartbeat. At this point, prison officials removed the unconscious Ms. Pike from the execution chamber and transferred her to Vanderbilt University Center. Those who had, only an hour before, attempted to kill Ms. Pike were then desperately trying to save her life.
There have been a handful of convicted killers who have survived attempts to execute them by lethal injection that failed because the prison staff could not obtain an IV on them. Ms. Pike is reported to be the first person in the history of the United States to survive an execution attempt by lethal injection after the lethal drug was administered.
Christa Gail Pike was convicted in 1996 of torturing and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in January 1995. Ms. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, 18 and 17 years old, respectively, at the time, met Miss Slemmer at a Job Corps program for troubled youth. Pike came to believe that Ms. Slemmer was attempting to steal her boyfriend, which motivated the torture and murder. Investigators reported that Ms. Slemmer endured a lengthy beating and torture, that a pentagram was carved into her chest, and that Ms. Pike took a piece of her skull as a macabre souvenir. A third person involved in the torture murder, Shadolla Peterson, also 18 at the time, turned state’s witness and received parole. Mr. Shipp was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Only Ms. Pike was sentenced to death. In 2008, Ms. Pike’s latest request for a new trial was denied.
The Monday after the attempted execution, Ms. Pike’s attorneys reported that it was their understanding that Ms. Pike was brain dead and that life support would be terminated the next day. To everyone’s surprise, however, including that of her medical team, Ms. Pike woke up the next day and began talking. Gov. Lee has placed a moratorium on executions for the remainder of the year while an investigation into the botched execution of Christa Pike is underway. Russell Spivey, one of Ms. Pike’s attorneys, explained that Ms. Pike is “angry and confused about everything right now. She is very aware that the state tried to execute her.” Her attorneys have filed a request to Gov. Lee that her sentence be commuted to life in prison and that the state never attempt to execute her again.
The bishops of Tennessee representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, and the Roman Catholic Church signed a joint statement urging Gov. Lee to commute Ms. Pike’s death sentence. Stating that the events surrounding the failed attempt to execute Ms. Pike makes their appeal “even more urgent,” the bishops explained to Gov. Lee that “Our churches have long and consistently opposed capital punishment … We believe that every human being bears the image of God and therefore possesses a dignity that even the most grievous sin cannot erase. We believe in accountability, but we also believe in repentance, redemption, mercy, and the possibility of transformation. As Scripture reminds us, God ‘desires mercy, not sacrifice’ (Matthew 9:13).”
In a statement just the next day, Oct. 2, the three Catholic bishops of Tennessee, Bishop David P. Talley of Memphis, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, and our own Bishop Mark Beckman of Knoxville called for, not merely the commuting of Christa Pike’s death sentence, but an end to capital punishment.
Titled “Replace the Death Penalty with Life without Parole,” the bishops wrote, “The Tennessee Catholic Conference calls on the state of Tennessee to choose a different path in responding to the most heinous crimes: replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This path serves justice, protects society, and respects the dignity of every human life. Catholic moral teaching recognizes that even those who commit terrible crimes retain their human dignity. Accountability for grave wrongdoing is necessary, but it does not require the taking of another life. The bishops of Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville have long maintained that society can be protected, and serious crimes punished, without resorting to execution.”
There are several reasons to oppose the death penalty. First, it does not represent true justice. True justice demands that what was taken be returned. In the case of taking a human life, this is obviously impossible. Second, the death penalty is administered unequally. Those convicted of heinous crimes who are racial minorities are more likely to receive the death penalty than those convicted who are white, even for similar crimes. Those convicted of killing a white person, or white people, are more likely to be sentenced to death than those convicted of killing a person who is not white. According to The Death Penalty Information Center, “More than 75 percent of death-row defendants who have been executed were sentenced to death for killing white victims, even though in society as a whole about half of all homicide victims are African American.”
Third, while in the past it may have been justified to take the life of one who threatened harm to society if they escaped, today our technology is such that we can securely imprison people for life with much greater success, so that killing the criminal is no longer necessary to protect society. Fourth, if the goal is to punish, life in prison fulfills that goal. To kill a criminal when it is possible to adequately hold him or her accountable for their crime without killing them is simply to kill seeking revenge. But our Lord says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19). Finally, and this is the most important in my mind, is that by executing a prisoner, we are telling him or her, “You have until this date to get yourself right with the Lord. If you do, great! If you don’t, we will kill your unrepentant self!” To me, that is unconscionable. Only God has the authority to tell a person how much time they have to get right with Him. That is certainly not a privilege of the state, even regarding a person who has committed horrible crimes.
Let’s hope and pray that Gov. Lee and the state legislature of Tennessee take seriously the appeal of Tennessee’s bishops. I’m not holding my breath. But God’s grace moves in mysterious ways. Let’s pray for a full recovery for Christa Pike, and that her heart will be moved to turn to the Lord for mercy. And let’s pray both for the repose of the soul of Colleen Slemmer and for the comfort of her family, that their hearts, too, might be moved to mercy.
Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.
Deacon Bob Hunt is a husband, father, grandfather, and parishioner at All Saints Church in Knoxville.