Christina Riggs (Execution of)

Christina Riggs was executed by lethal injection on May 2, 2000, after being convicted of capital murder for killing her two young children.

Christina Marie Thomas was born on September 2, 1971, in Lawton, Oklahoma, and later lived in Oklahoma City. She was sexually abused by both her stepbrother and a neighbor as a child and began drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana at age fourteen. She got pregnant two years later and gave the child up for adoption.

After graduating from high school, she became a licensed practical nurse. She became pregnant by a man she was dating named Timothy Thompson, who was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base. Thompson refused to accept that the child was his and returned to his native Minnesota. Justin Dalton Thomas was born on June 7, 1992. Christina Thomas began seeing a sailor named Jon Riggs whom she had previously dated, and they married in July 1993; she had a miscarriage on their wedding night, but they later had a daughter, Shelby Alexis Riggs, in December 1994.

The couple moved to Sherwood (Pulaski County), where Christina Riggs’s mother, Carol Thomas, lived. Christina divorced her husband after he hit Justin in the stomach so hard that he needed medical attention. She was soon deeply in debt.

On November 4, 1997, Christina Riggs acquired the antidepressant Elavil from her pharmacy and got potassium chloride and morphine from the hospital where she was employed. That night, she gave the children Elavil so that they would fall asleep. She injected Justin, age five, with potassium chloride, but when he woke up screaming, she smothered him with a pillow. She then smothered Shelby, age two, with a pillow.

Then, according to an Arkansas Times article, “she took 28 Elavil tablets, normally a lethal dose, and injected herself with enough undiluted potassium chloride to kill five people.” She fell to the floor unconscious, but the potassium chloride burned a hole in her arm instead of going into her veins.

Riggs’s mother went to her daughter’s home when Riggs failed to show up for work the next day and found the two children dead and Riggs unconscious. Riggs was taken to a hospital and then arrested on November 6 on two charges of capital murder.

Though her attorney initially entered an insanity plea, Riggs waived her competency hearing and opted to go to trial, where prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty. Though several psychiatrists testified that Riggs should be found innocent by mental defect “because she suffered major depression and could not appreciate the wrongness of her action,” the seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated only fifty-five minutes before finding her guilty on June 30, 1998, and recommending death. When Judge Marion Humphrey set August 15, 1998, for her execution, she said, “I’m going home to be with my babies.” A death row for women was established for her at the McPherson Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Newport (Jackson County).

Despite her wishes, the penalty was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which upheld the verdict in a 6–1 opinion written by Justice Robert L. Brown. Riggs waived further appeals of her death sentence; the waiver was accepted after she underwent a mental evaluation.

Riggs was transported to the death chamber at the Cummins Unit for her May 2, 2000, execution by lethal injection. As she was strapped to the gurney, she said that “there is no way words can express just how sorry I am for taking the lives of my babies….No way I can make up for or take away the pain I have caused everyone who knew and loved them.” A minute after the injections began, she whispered, “I love you, my babies.” She was pronounced dead at 9:28 p.m.

Riggs was only the second woman legally executed in Arkansas. Lavinia Burnett was hanged with her husband for murder in Washington County on November 8, 1845.

For additional information:
Blomely, Seth. “Grandma’s Testimony Saddens Jury.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 30, 1998, p. 2B.

———. “Killer Mom Closer to Execution.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 21, 1999, p. 2B.

———. “Ruling Clears Way for Mom’s Execution.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 15, 2000, p. 3B.

Brooks, Jim. “Suffocation, Drugs Killed Two Children.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 21, 1997, p. 8B.

Frye, Cathy. “Riggs, Mother Who Killed Her 2 Children, Executed.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 3, 2000, p. 1B.

Haddigan, Michael. “Equal Opportunity.” Arkansas Times, April 9, 1999, pp. 12–15.

Oman, Noel E. “Conviction Upheld for Mother Who Murdered Her Children.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 5, 1999, p. 3B.

Satter, Linda. “Depression Unhinged Mother of Slain Kids, Psychologist Testifies.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 27, 1998, p. 7B.

———. “Judge Decides Riggs Will Die for Killing Kids.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 1, 1998, pp. 1B.

———. “Mom Hated, Suffocated Kids, Prosecutors Say.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jume 25, 1998, pp. 1A, 14A.

———. “Sherwood Nurse Enters Insanity Plea in Children’s Deaths.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 14, 1997, p. 1B.

———. “Woman Unstable before Slaying, 3 Experts Testify.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 28, 1998, p. 2B.

“Sherwood Mother’s Role Disputed in Oklahoma Bomb Rescue.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 13, 1997, p. 3B.

Stumpe, Joe. “Mother Relinquishes Competency Hearing in Children’s Deaths.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 24, 1998, p. 2B.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas