Why is Christa Pike still on life support despite her death sentence?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — As convicted killer Christa Pike reportedly remains unconscious on a ventilator after her failed execution attempt, questions are being raised as to why she is still receiving life-saving medical care.

Consтιтutional attorney David Raybin, who helped write the Tennessee death penalty statute, gave FOX 17 News insight.

“The death sentence was imposed by a court, but it was to be done at the prison. They can not ‘execute’ her at a hospital by removing her life support. That would be murder,” said Raybin.

Under Tennessee law, an execution must be carried out through the state’s legally prescribed execution process at the prison. Once Pike was taken to the hospital, Raybin says doctors could not end her life simply because she remains under a death sentence.

“What happens if she just stays in a vegetative state indefinitely?” asked FOX 17 News.

“The government has to pay for that,” said Raybin. “She is in a situation where the government itself is responsible for failing to execute her properly; they bear the consequences.”

This is true, even if Pike’s death sentence is commuted, which is what her attorneys have asked Governor Bill Lee to do.

Raybin said Pike’s time in the hospital is costing taxpayers.

As convicted killer Christa Pike reportedly remains unconscious after her failed execution attempt, questions are being raised as to why she is still on life-support. PH๏τos shows Pike at a young age. (PH๏τo: SBG)

“It could be thousands of thousands of dollars but that’s attributable to the failure of the state to carry out the execution in an inappropriate manner,” said Raybin.

Raybin says if Pike’s family or medical power of attorney would potentially seek to end life support, because of the circumstances, he believes a judge would likely have to sign off on that decision.

“Given the unusual circumstances here, I think the Department of Correction would require her family, if that’s what they were wanting to do, to have a judicial determination,” said Raybin.

Pike was rushed to the hospital Wednesday night after Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection failed.

FOX 17 News previously reported Pike received two doses of the execution drug pentobarbital, but the drugs did not kill her. She was taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution to an off-site hospital, where her attorney Stephen Ferrell told CNN she has remained unconscious since the execution attempt. Pike’s attorney has said her long-term prognosis remains unclear and whether or not she’ll recover is unknown.

Pike has now been hospitalized for nearly five days.

A jury convicted Pike in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors say then 18-year-old Pike brutally killed her fellow classmate Slemmer in Knoxville in a jealous rage. Prosecutors also say a pentagram was carved on Slemmer’s body, and Pike took a piece of her skull with her as a souvenir and reportedly bragged about it.

As convicted killer Christa Pike reportedly remains unconscious after her failed execution attempt, questions are being raised as to why she is still on life-support. PH๏τo shows Colleen Slemmer, the teenager Pike murdered in 1995 in Knoxville, Tenn. (PH๏τo: SBG)

FOX 17 News has filed a public records request with the Tennessee Department of Correction to ask how much Pike’s hospitalization is costing taxpayers. We are waiting to hear back. A public records request could take up to seven days.

We also reached out to Pike’s attorneys regarding what her family or medical power of attorney plans to do if doctors predict she will not regain consciousness and are waiting to hear back.