Story summary
Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, was set to be executed by lethal injection on September 30, 2026, becoming the first woman executed in the state since the early 1800s. Pike, now serving her sentence for killing Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate at Knoxville Job Corps when she was just 18 years old, had her clemency request denied by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. She and her then-boyfriend tortured and murdered Slemmer in a jealous rage.
Pike's legal team filed a petition with the US Supreme Court, hoping for a last-minute reprieve due to concerns about her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from childhood trauma and sexual abuse. However, on September 29, 2026, the Supreme Court rejected their plea. The execution was scheduled to take place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Just hours before the planned lethal injection, a judge issued a temporary stay of execution based on new arguments about whether Pike's childhood abuse had been adequately considered during sentencing. This decision has prompted further legal challenges and delays in carrying out her sentence.
Written for “Christa Pike Execution Controversy” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 139 other(s) covering the same event.
Murderer Christa Pike's hospital room is surrounded by guards while she is receiving treatment for a botched execution that she may never recover from, her lawyer said.
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lawyer → surround → that
Pike was sentenced to death by Tennessee in 1996 at the age of 20 for the vicious torture and murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer the previous year.
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Pike → sentence → classmate
She had been on death row for 30 years until her execution, which had been delayed time and again, was scheduled to finally be carried out on September 30.
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which → delay → September
Pike, now 50, was injected by at least seven needles as medical staff attempted to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital over the course of around two hours, according to witnesses and court filings.
But the murderer survived and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly throughout the process, according to her lawyers.
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murderer → inject → lawyers
By the time members of the media were ushered out of the viewing chamber at 8.53pm, a little more than two hours after they were brought in at 6.41pm, Pike could be heard snoring loudly from behind closed curtains.
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Pike → usher → curtains
Pike was taken to the hospital unconscious with her arms swollen and blistered from the drug.
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arms → take → drug
She was intubated and placed on a ventilator, and she remains alive but still unconscious as of Sunday, according to her lawyers.
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she → intubate → lawyers
One of her attorneys, Stephen Ferrell, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that Pike's room 'is guarded' and that she 'may not fully recover.'
Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital during her execution on September 30 in Tennessee.
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Pike → tell → Tennessee
She is now unconscious in a guarded hospital room and may never recover
Pike was sentenced to death at the age of 20 in 1996.
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Pike → guard → 1996
She is pictured crying during her sentencing hearing at the time
Pike's victim was a classmate named Colleen Slemmer, who is pictured as a child.
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who → picture → child
Pike tortured Slemmer for up to an hour before murdering her
Ferrell added that Pike has not regained consciousness or been able to say anything since the failed execution, as far as he is aware.
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he → torture → execution
The attorney also said that he has not been allowed inside the hospital room and that 'we don't really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several more days.'
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we → say → days
The state of Tennessee has not yet announced whether it plans to attempt to execute Pike again, Ferrell added.
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Ferrell → announce → Pike
During Pike's attempted execution, she said: 'My arm feels like it's about to burst open,' and at another point, asked: 'Does this happen like that?'
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this → attempt → that
The botched procedure has become a scandal that even drew reaction from President Donald Trump, who the next day said: 'How does that happen?
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that → botch → Trump
It also led Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to announce he put in his resignation and will step down from the top role later this month.
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he → lead → role
Strada said it was a 'great honor' to serve in his position and that he still 'believes the Department carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.
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Department → say → protocol
'
'Even so, stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward,' he said.
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he → step → Tennesseans
Pike's botched execution became a scandal that even drew criticism from President Trump, who said: 'It shouldn't be very difficult'
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It → botch → Trump
The scandal also led Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to announce that he is resigning and will step down later this month
Tennessee's execution protocol does not outline what should be done if an inmate survives two lethal injection doses.
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inmate → lead → doses
The execution chamber where Pike was supposed to die is pictured
Pike's attorneys have argued that the Department of Correction failed their client.
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Department → suppose → client
The lawyers said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
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pentobarbital → say → body
'Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike's body,' the lawyers wrote in a court filing.
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lawyers → realize → filing
They wrote that instead of 'remedying this failure,' they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
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they → write → syringes
Her lawyers are seeking to have all of the evidence from her botched execution preserved so they can ensure accountability and protect her legal rights.
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they → seek → rights
The court filing emphasized that Pike previously filed an appeal claiming her execution would result in cruel and unusual punishment because of her individual physical characteristics, including thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and small veins.
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execution → emphasize → thrombocytosis
Tennessee's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered 'if the inmate is not deceased' after the first set.
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inmate → call → set
It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.
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subject → spell → set
Governor Bill Lee has halted any additional executions for the year and ordered 'a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.'
Pike's attorneys said that the execution team failed to place the IVs into her veins, causing the lethal injection to enter her body rather than her bloodstream
Pike (pictured in 1996) carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest and took a piece of her caved-in skull after bludgeoning the young woman to death with a piece of asphalt
At the age of 18, Pike lured Colleen Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee's campus in January 1995 and, alongside her boyfriend and a friend, tortured Slemmer for up to an hour.
Slemmer was stabbed more than 100 times with a box cutter before Pike bludgeoned her to death with a piece of asphalt, carved a pentagram into her chest and took a piece of her caved-in skull as a sick souvenir.
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Pike → halt → souvenir
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