W. Mark Ward denied Christa Gail Pike’s emergency motion to reopen her hearing in her challenge to Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol. The ruling leaves her legal fight over the execution physician in place as the state keeps control of who takes part until 30 days before the planned execution.
W. Mark Ward and Pike
Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, and her lawyers had asked for another hearing focused on the physician they say could be part of her execution. Ward said the physician’s intention to participate does not necessarily mean he will be assigned to the team.
That leaves Pike’s challenge unresolved on the narrow issue her team pressed most urgently: whether the physician is qualified to take part. Ward also said he was not convinced Pike would need a central line for her lethal injection, another part of the dispute raised in the hearing.
Stephen Ferrel on TDOC
Stephen Ferrel of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee said the physician took part in Tony Carruthers’ botched May execution and Darrell Hines’ execution last week. He told WVLT, “We are deeply disappointed in the Special Master’s denial of our emergency motion to reopen Christa Pike’s hearing to address the qualifications of the TDOC physician who will participate in any execution of Ms. Pike.”
Ferrel also said, “He publicly outed himself as TDOC’s paid execution participant.” He added, “The Special Master’s finding that the identity of the execution physician is only ‘speculation’ is belied by the physician’s statements to the media.”
He said, “The State continues to hide behind a veil of secrecy, which the physician has torn open, and withheld critical information from the public and the courts,” and, “Christa should not have to wait until she is strapped to the execution gurney to know that the person performing this critical procedure is competent to do so and that her execution will not be torturous.”
1995 Conviction in Knoxville
Pike was convicted in 1995 of the torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike tortured and killed Slemmer on the University of Tennessee Agriculture campus after she thought Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.
The state’s selection process now controls the next step. With execution participants chosen 30 days before the planned execution, Pike’s team is left waiting for the point when the state must name who will be involved.
