KNOXVILLE − Christa Pike sat at a long conference table. She wore a light blue long prison-issue top. In the minutes before the hearing, she smiled and waved at one of her attorneys.
The judge paused to make sure Pike could hear what was going on.
"Yes, I can," Pike said with a smile. "Hello. Good morning." Those are the only words she spoke into the microphone for three days.
The state plans to execute Pike Sept. 30.
Pike is scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819. She has been in custody since the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.
Senior Judge Mark Ward, a special master appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court, presided during the three-day hearing that ended
just before noon on Aug. 13.
A report with Ward's conclusions was to be submitted to the Tennessee Supreme Court by Aug. 21. Attorneys for the state and for Pike will be able to lodge challenges until Aug. 28.
The hearing delved into the horrors of Pike's early life.
She was raped as a toddler, the defense said. She was raped again when she was 11. Then again at age 17, about a year before she killed her friend. She was also abused by family members, and several friends of her family.
Doctors on both sides agree that Pike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike's team questioned the state's protocol of four guards strapping Pike to a gurney to take her to the death chamber. Also, Pike's team argued that her showering and using feminine products while being observed by male guards would be triggering.
The state fell short of guaranteeing that those four guards would be female. But prosecutors said they would try to keep men away from Pike.
Bethany Brand, psychologist and trauma expert, said Pike would re-live the rape scenes if the current protocol is used.
"For Christa, with a history of repeated rapes, procedures requiring genital or groin-area exposure, as well as being touched in those private areas by unfamiliar personnel, particularly male personnel, and particularly under conditions of physical restraint, would directly re-trigger the terror, as well as the sensory and situational memories, of being raped," Brand said.
Ward heard arguments about four topics: Are Pike's veins too small? Will her blood disorder, thrombocytosis, make her death too painful? If her final hours occur in the presence of male prison guards, will that be too cruel for a woman who was raped by men as a child? And, is there another execution method that would be more palatable for Pike?
Pike is asking the court to stay her execution for more discussion.
Journalists from The Tennessean, the Knoxville News Sentinel and other media outlets were in the courtroom at Knoxville Criminal Court, but Pike was not. Her image was streamed from the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been imprisoned for more than 30 years.
"Technically, we're not in criminal court," Ward said to start the hearing. "This is an evidentiary hearing."
The intensity of the hearing was high, especially when the topic turned to how much physical and mental pain she should endure, from the hours leading to the death chamber to the 20 to 30 seconds after the drug is injected.
Will she be strapped to a gurney in a prison full of men and rolled to the execution chamber?
Will the crease of her elbow be pierced by a 24-gauge needle to allow for a massive dose of pentobarbital to kill her?
Pike was represented by a team of four attorneys. Luke Ihnen, who has expertise in death penalty cases, handled the bulk of the time in front of the judge. Will Ayers led the state's team of five. Neither commented to the media.
The reason Pike is on death row was never mentioned in the hearing. In 1995, Pike bludgeoned Slemmer to death, kept a part of Slemmer's skull as a souvenir and carved a pentagram into her chest.
Pike's side quickly won a few victories. She will be allowed to have a Buddhist advisor with her in the death chamber. She will be transferred from the Johnson facility to Riverbend (where all Tennessee executions take place) within 24 hours of the lethal injection. Previous death row inmates were transferred two weeks before their execution.
Most of the hearing focused on Pike's veins.
The state put on a witness, Louisiana State University hematologist Richard Mansour, who underplayed any issues with Pike's bloodstream. Mansour pointed to Pike's recent medical history.
"She's had a dozen blood draws, 12 with one stick were successful, one was two sticks," Mansour said. "Her veins are accessible."
Pike's team argued that she has thrombocytosis, which would cause clotting and pain at the site of the injection.
Joel Zivot, anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Emory University, said Pike's condition includes a risk that it could make Pike feel like she is "burning alive" on the inside of her body.
"Lethal injection was designed to look okay," Zivot said. "But it's not okay. It doesn't create a painless death. It creates a cruel death. There's terrible pain there."
The hearing also included a discussion of execution by hanging, which has not been used as a method of execution in Tennessee for 100 years.
In order to challenge the lethal injection, Pike was required to argue an alternative method of execution. Her attorneys argued in favor of hanging. Ward emphatically noted that defense experts on hanging had never participated or overseen a judicial hanging.
"Why would you represent yourself as an authority and pawn yourself off on this court?" Ward said to Scott Goldstein, a Temple University Hospital emergency room physician for 24 years.
Stephen Ferrell handled the closing argument for Pike's team.
"The venous access will be more difficult, prolonging the time she will be in the terror of her sexual abuse," Ferrell said. "(The lethal injection) will cause a significant burning sensation. There is an increased risk of pain and suffering."
Representing the state, Ayers reminded the court that death was the goal in the case.
"The standard is not a painless execution," Ayers said. "The state does not dispute the things Ms. Pike has suffered. (Pike's) recommendations are impossible to carry out. Psychological harm alone is not a violation. This is an attack on execution in general. Ms. Pike's position seems to be that any execution protocol would violate the Eighth Amendment."
Ward ended the hearing with a smile.
"I wish everyone, including Ms. Pike, good luck in the future," he said.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Inside the courtroom for the Christa Pike death penalty hearings
