Court of Criminal Appeals grants Pike stay of execution

By Randy Kenner
News-Sentinel staff writer
August 2, 2002

Pike's attorney, state Post-Conviction Defender Donald E. Dawson, said he was pleased and relieved with the ruling that came in response to an appeal he and Catherine Y. Brockenborough filed in July.

"We're always pleased when a stay of execution is granted," Dawson said Friday in Nashville.

The appeals court's order comes barely six weeks after Pike pleaded with Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz to let her drop her death penalty appeal - a request Leibowitz granted during a June 25 hearing.

But Pike changed her mind a short time later and her lawyers filed an appeal in the court of criminal appeals on July 8 before filing a motion in late July in Knox County Criminal Court. Both filings sought to vacate Leibowitz' ruling and allow Pike to basically pick up her appeal where it was left off.

Both the state attorney general's office and Leland L. Price, an assistant district attorney general in Knoxville, countered with filings arguing that Leibowitz' June ruling effectively ended any post-conviction appeal Pike had here.

A post-conviction appeal is the second and final round of state appeals in a death penalty case in Tennessee. A condemned inmate can still appeal in the federal courts once all the state appeals are exhausted.

Appeals Court Judges Gary Wade, Joseph M. Tipton and Curwood Witt, however, ruled in their one-page order that Leibowitz should hear Pike's motion to vacate her order allowing Pike to drop the death penalty appeal.

The judges gave no reason for their decision but noted they had carefully considered the matter.

Dawson said the order should put Pike's appeal back in the status it was in on June 25, 2001, when Pike suddenly told Leibowitz she wanted to give up her death penalty appeal.

"That's what my hope would be," Dawson said.

The state attorney general's office can appeal the order staying Pike's execution and sending the case back to Knox County but no decision had been made Friday afternoon.

"We're certainly considering our options at this point," said Sharon Curtis Flair, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office.

Pike, 26, was convicted in 1996 of the torture slaying of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted of murder in Slemmer's death.