A Buddhist teacher in Tennessee is preparing to accompany death-row prisoner Christa Pike during her scheduled execution on Wednesday, when the pair plan to practice metta (loving-kindness) meditation through the final stages of her life.
Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on 30 September at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. She would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 180 years.
Pike was sentenced to death for her role in the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her Buddhist faith has assumed increasing importance during her years in prison and has also figured prominently in legal challenges over Tennessee’s execution procedures.
The guiding teacher at Wild Heart Meditation Center in East Nashville, Rev. Mikey Noechel, Pike’s spiritual advisor for more than two years, told Nashville public radio station WPLN that he expected to accompany Pike into the execution chamber.
“I’ll be taking her inside of the space where they will be putting her to death and we’ll be walking in with this practice of loving-kindness, blessing the whole room with loving-kindness . . . creating this environment of care.” (WPLN)
Noechel said that the metta practice would be recited aloud as Pike was prepared for execution, saying, “I’ve had numerous friends go with this dying wish: that all beings be at ease and at peace and gentle, and leaving this world and to transition into whatever happens after this.” (WPLN)
Pike’s Buddhist practice has also been part of litigation challenging Tennessee’s execution protocol. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, Pike argued that restrictions on access to her Buddhist spiritual advisor during the final 12 hours before execution burdened her religious practice. Her attorneys also argued that requiring her to propose an alternative means of execution as part of a legal challenge conflicted with Buddhist beliefs by requiring her to participate in planning her own death.
Religious-access questions surrounding executions have arisen more broadly in Tennessee. Litigation over the state’s execution protocol has challenged restrictions on spiritual advisors and argued that traditions without conventional ordained “clergy” could be treated differently from other religions.
Speaking with WPLN’s Tasha A. F. Lemley, Noechel acknowledged both Pike’s responsibility for Slemmer’s killing and the suffering of Slemmer’s family while questioning the use of capital punishment: “Of course, she’s an oppressor, right? She is the one who did this, and she makes no bones about that. She is owning up to what she did.” (WPLN)
Noechel said that Pike had spoken with him about Slemmer’s mother and had expressed hope that her execution might bring some relief to Slemmer’s family: “Yeah, that’s what she was saying to me, that she’s hoping that her death will make them feel better. And it probably will. But my main concern is society.” (WPLN)
He framed his opposition to the execution in explicitly Buddhist terms, invoking karma and the Buddhist emphasis on mental intention: “We are continuing this habitual cycle of karma to kill again, and we’re getting really good at that. How about let’s get good at something else? The Buddha taught that all phenomena is preceded by mind.” (WPLN)
Pike has separately petitioned Tennessee governor Bill Lee for clemency, seeking commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment without parole. As of 28 September, the state continued publicly to prepare for the execution, with the Department of Correction issuing instructions for media witnesses and access to Riverbend.
Her lawyers have argued that since receiving appropriate medication and therapy, Pike has not had problems with violence. Her Buddhist practice, Pike said, had served to “train my chaotic mind.” (New York Times)
Reports from other women incarcerated near her expressed support for claims that she had changed for the better. “Knowing Christa has changed my feelings about the death penalty,” said Marcy Graves Wilson, whose daughter was helped by Pike while in prison. Speaking about Pike, she added, “I feel like she has so much that she could offer.” (The New York Times)
For Noechel, Pike’s final hours will nevertheless center on Buddhist practice and the possibility of compassion amid violence: “Yes, she is responsible, but I also feel responsible, and you should feel responsible, and everybody should feel responsible so we can take responsibility. When we take responsibility, it gives us the empowerment to respond.” (WPLN)
Christa Pike wrote in a letter last week before news came that she had not been granted clemency: “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.” (NBC News)
See more
Christa Pike’s spiritual advisor on Buddhism, execution and the responsibility to respond (WPLN)
After a Life in Isolation, a Tennessee Woman Waits for Her Execution (New York Times)
Ahead of rare execution, lone woman on Tennessee death row says ‘I am at peace’ (NBC News)
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