In a time just after dinosaurs became extinct, I was in either the 7th or 8th grade. I remember being assigned a term paper of sorts — — a full 10 page typewritten essay. We had one partner to work with, a crazy amount of time, and a partner. My partner was Tammy Donahue.
There was a world of difference between then and now!
No computers or Internet for research… and we’d never heard of AI. We had the school library we could visit during class, and I had a set of World Book Encyclopedias at my disposal at home. I remember Tammy coming to my place a few times to work on the assignment and I remember her bedtime was 8:00 PM. (EIGHT PM, YOU GUYS!!)
I so wish I still had a copy of our hard work. We were assigned the topic of… drum roll please… capital punishment in the US.
I wonder what my position on capital punishment was back then.
My senior brain believes that capital punishment should be reserved for the worst of the worst. Like Christa Pike. But back when we got the assignment, the Supreme Court had just halted executions nationwide — the death penalty didn’t resume until 1977 when Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah.
I wonder what my adolescent brain would’ve thought the punishment should’ve been for Pike. At 18 years old, Pike attacked Colleen Slemmer with a box cutter and meat cleaver. She beat her, cut her throat, carved a pentagram into her flesh while she was alive, and pummeled her with asphalt. Pike kept a piece of her victim’s skull and showed it off to friends afterward.
What now since the execution failed?
Because Tennessee’s execution protocol did not authorize a third dose of pentobarbital, an ambulance was called and Pike was taken to a hospital where she remains on life support.
There was the horrific death of Colleen Slemmer, the decades-long consequences for everyone involved, and then an execution that went terribly wrong. It raises some pretty uncomfortable questions about what happens when a state-administered procedure intended to end someone’s life doesn’t work as planned.
Now you know: While Christa Pike was the primary aggressor, he boyfriend actively participated. Because he was 17 at the time, Tennessee law didn’t allow for the death penalty. Another friend (the lookout) cooperated with prosecutors and got 5 years probation.