While already on Tennessee’s death row for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, Christa Pike was involved in a second serious act of violence.
According to the Tennessee Department of Correction, while incarcerated, Pike was convicted of attempted first degree murder in the assault on inmate Patricia Jones in 2001.
Court docs from the Court of Criminal Appeals state that the incident took place at the Tennessee Prison for Women, now known as the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
Because of a fire in the prison’s maximum-security unit, several inmates were evacuated from their cells.
After Pike, Patricia Jones and another prisoner, Natasha Cornett, were placed together in a recreation cage, an argument developed between Jones and Cornett.
Jones testified that Cornett attempted to strike her but missed. As Jones prepared to fight Cornett, Pike came up behind Jones and began choking her. Jones eventually lost consciousness.
Christa Pike, 50, survived a botched execution attempt on Wednesday (Tennessee Department of Corrections)
The evidence presented at Pike’s later trial indicated that Pike used a heavy shoe or boot lace to strangle Jones.
Prosecutors argued that the attack amounted to a premeditated attempt to kill her, as Pike disputed that interpretation, maintaining that she had intervened to protect Cornett from Jones.
Court records discussed recorded telephone conversations made after the attack, and in one conversation with her mother, Pike said that she had ‘premeditated the hell out of this’.
Evidence also indicated that Pike believed Jones would have died had the strangulation continued for approximately another thirty seconds.
These statements supported the prosecution’s argument that Pike intended to kill Jones rather than merely stop a fight.
Jones survived the attack and Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree premeditated murder, receiving an additional 25-year prison sentence.
Pike’s legal team argued that her death sentence was disproportionate due to her severe childhood trauma (Knox County Sheriff’s Department)
The death row inmate, now 50, survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs of pentobarbital on Wednesday (30 September), and was subsequently hospitalised for life-saving medical care.
But any second execution attempt could face significant constitutional challenges, according to Charley Dugdale, Associate Head of Law and Associate Professor at St Mary’s University Twickenham.
“If she survives and becomes medically stable, she would remain under her existing death sentence unless it was overturned or commuted. At the time of writing, her precise medical condition has not been publicly confirmed,” she tells LADbible.
“The execution date set by the Tennessee Supreme Court has now passed. Tennessee could not simply return Pike to the execution chamber whenever it chose.
“A new execution date would need to be lawfully set by the Tennessee Supreme Court before the state could make another attempt, and it would be difficult to seek another date before the comprehensive third-party review was completed. Given the unusual circumstances, the precise procedure may itself become the subject of legal argument.”
Why Pike is on death row
Pike was sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer (Find a Grave)
At the age of 18, she carried out what a judge called the ‘horrific’ and ‘brutal’ murder of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.
Pike and two friends lured the 19-year-old into the woods, where they beat, tortured, and killed her. Pike was sentenced to death when she was 20 a year later.
Tennessee Supreme Court docs obtained by news.com.au state that Pike ‘told her friend Kim Iloilo, who was also a student at the facility, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she ‘had just felt mean that day’.
“Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir,” the documents state.
“Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing ‘la, la, la’ while she related these details about the murder.
“When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim’s skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, ‘And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it’.”
Pike’s legal team argued that her death sentence was disproportionate due to her severe childhood trauma.
