Tennessee Gov. Lee signals woman who survived lethal injection will still face death penalty

Christa Pike, who survived two doses of the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, earlier this month, will likely face another attempt to carry out her death sentence. 

Despite pleas from her attorneys to have her sentence commuted to life without parole following the botched execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Pike remains incarcerated and her sentence is unlikely to change, Fox News reported. 

"I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before unless determined otherwise by the courts," Lee said.

Lee has halted future execution attempts and has ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred." The next attempt to carry out any death sentences in the state will not take place this year.

Pike was convicted of killing former classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 when she was just 18-years-old. Court records note that Pike and Slemmer were students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville when Pike tortured and killed Slemmer slowly, which was allegedly over comments the 19-year-old Slemmer had made about her relationship. 

Pike's then-boyfriend and another friend helped carry out the attack and murder, but the boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison because he was just 17-years-old at the time. The friend was given probation because she testified against Pike during the trial.

Court records from Pike's trial also showed that Slemmer was repeatedly beaten and cut with a meat cleaver and a box cutter over the course of 30 minutes to an hour, in a secluded section of the University of Tennessee's campus. 

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