KNOXVILLE -- Cruelty is on the docket as the second day of hearings begins in the case of Christa Pike, sentenced to be put to death on Sept. 30 by the state of Tennessee.
Pike has been in custody since the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.
Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest. The beating was so savage that a piece of Slemmer's skull was dislodged. Pike kept the skull fragment and showed it to friends afterward.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has been vehement in her support of the death penalty for Pike, USA TODAY reported.
"There is no excuse for what I did … I take full responsibility for my actions, and regret everything that happened that night," Pike is quoted saying on a site created by her supporters. "I only want my situation to be looked at now through the eyes of logic instead of anger and answered the question of if I deserve to die for a crime committed by three people."
Pike was 18 when she, Slemmer, Shadolla Peterson and Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, went to a wooded, isolated area behind the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus steam plant, ostensibly to smoke marijuana. Pike was jealous of Slemmer, who she believed was trying to seduce Shipp.
With Peterson serving as a lookout, Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmer for 30 minutes.
Peterson turned state witness and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. She received a six-year probationary sentence. Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life. He becomes eligible for parole this year, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
This week, Pike's attorneys are arguing that her sentence of death would mean unconstitutional cruelty.
The hearing began on Aug. 11. Straight away, both sides agreed Pike could a Buddhist spiritual leader with her in the death chamber, eliminating one of the issues on this week's agenda.
Shelby County Senior Judge Mark Ward has ben appointed special master for this week's proceedings. He is scheduled to hear from experts saying Pike suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and a blood-clotting disease, and that killing her would be torture.
"It's not a challenge to her death sentence," Ward said to start the hearing. "It's a challenge to her method of execution."
Pike's defense team is expected to call two witnesses on Day 2. The first is scheduled to be Bethany Brand, a psychologist and trauma expert, followed by Scott Goldstein, an emergency medicine professor at Temple University.
Things got contentious on Aug. 11, the first day of the hearing. Ananesthesiologist Joel Zivot was testifying about the pain Pike would suffer during the lethal injection process because, her attorneys say, she has thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting disorder.
"How long will it be that a patient can feel pain?" Ward asked.
"Even if it's 20 seconds, that's an awfully long time to be burned alive. It could be one minute," Zivot answered.
If this was such horrible pain, Ward asked, how come Zivot hadn't included his opinion in a prior research paper?
"Lethal Injection was designed to look OK," Zivot said. "But it's not OK. It doesn't create a painless death. It creates a cruel death."
Ward said later this week he expects an expert to testify that a person given lethal injection will only have 20 to 30 seconds of pain before they can't feel anything.
"I'll grill him like I grilled you," Ward said.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Christa Pike hearing turns contentious