Pope Leo XIV Reportedly Attempted to Halt Botched Execution of Christa Pike
Vatican declines to confirm report while Tennessee Bishops urge commutation of death sentence.
Pope Leo XIV reportedly attempted to intervene in the botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike in Tennessee on Wednesday, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
The Vatican has not confirmed the report, but it comes as the Bishops of Tennessee issued a letter to Governor Bill Lee urging him to commute Pike's death sentence.
"We respectfully and urgently ask you to commute the death sentence of Christa Gail Pike and ensure that the State of Tennessee does not attempt to execute her again," the Bishops wrote Thursday. They acknowledged the "horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer" but stated that "accountability need not require another death."
Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Investigators said Pike and her boyfriend stabbed and beat Slemmer, carving a pentagram into her chest, and Pike took a piece of Slemmer's skull.
Pike's execution was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but a federal appeals court halted it an hour prior. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the stay after an eight-hour deliberation, allowing the lethal injection to proceed.
According to Pike's attorneys, prison officials made at least seven attempts with needles during two unsuccessful efforts to execute her. The attorney stated that Pike remained conscious and even offered to help direct the medical team to a vein.
Witnesses reported that Pike was heard snoring after the second dose of pentobarbital was administered. She was then rushed to a hospital, where her attorneys confirmed on Thursday that she was alive but in critical condition. No update on her condition was available on Friday.
In the wake of the failed execution, Republican Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett called for Pike to face a firing squad, suggesting that methods like hanging or firing squads are more reliable than lethal injection. "Get away from the drugs. That’s been problematic from the start," Burchett told NewsNation. "I've also proposed legislation for hanging. That’s what we got to look at. These things are not successful." Pike had been on death row for 30 years and was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over two centuries.