Colleen Slemmer
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Failed execution: Christa Pike regains consciousness
NASHVILLE, Tennessee: Death row inmate Christa Pike has regained consciousness after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are set to head to court Wednesday to seek more information about what went wrong. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as executioners attempted to put her to death Sept. 30 for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike is believed to be the only person to survive after lethal injection drugs were administered. Pike’s attorneys are set to appear in court Wednesday as they are seeking more information from the Tennessee Department of Correction. Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has scheduled a Wednesday morning status conference in Nashville in the case. "Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement. Pike’s prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery, the attorneys said. They said Pike's arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and that she is handcuffed to the hospital bed. Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information. Attorneys with the Tennessee attorney general’s office wrote in a Tuesday court filing that the court order is unnecessary because the prison system is "obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved.” They said state officials have taken "the necessary steps to obtain medical care for Pike and ascertain what occurred.” Republican Gov. Bill Lee called what happened "deeply disturbing” and ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year. Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys wrote in their court filing that "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.” The attempted execution got underway around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard audibly breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to a hospital.
Mother of Christa Pike's victim speaks out following botched execution
Wednesday's execution attempt came 30 years after Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Oct 2, 2026 · byABC News
Christa Pike in critical condition after Tennessee botched execution, lawyer says
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.
Oct 2, 2026 · byEuronews
The Memo: Tennessee debacle revives bitter debate over death penalty
The death penalty is back center stage in national politics in the most macabre of circumstances. Christa Pike, 50, who admits to the gruesome 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, is in critical condition in the hospital after Tennessee’s attempt to execute her Wednesday evening failed. The attempted execution had only proceeded at the last…
Oct 1, 2026 · byThe Hill
Christa Pike's Ex Tadaryl Shipp, Who Helped Murder Colleen Slemmer, Remains In Prison
Christa Pike's ex-boyfriend -- who helped her torture and kill a 19-year-old woman -- is still locked up ... but he's taking steps to change his scenery. Tadaryl Shipp is currently housed in Tennessee's Northwest Correctional Complex ... according…
Oct 1, 2026 · byTMZ
US death row inmate Christa Pike survives lethal execution attempt
Christa Pike, convicted of murdering a schoolmate three decades ago, survived Tennessee's effort to execute her by means of lethal injection late on Wednesday, prison officials said, foiling the state's first attempt to put a woman to death in two centuries. Pike's condition following the ordeal was not immediately made known, and it was not clear after she was taken for medical treatment from the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville what legal avenues her lawyers or the state might pursue next. The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its handling of the high-profile execution, which had been opposed by human rights experts due to Pike's age at the time of the crime, her history as the victim of childhood sexual abuse and untreated mental illness. "The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office," the agency said in a statement. May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP) "The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility," the statement concluded. Pike's lawyers filed a federal court motion during the process seeking to halt her execution, citing witnesses' accounts that "executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals and Pike is still alive and snoring," NBC News reported. The botched execution attempt came hours after the US Supreme Court lifted an 11th-hour lower-court stay of the execution, clearing the way for Pike, 50, to be put to death for her role in the 1995 torture and beating death of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime. The Tennessee Department of Correction said after the High Court action that it would "move forward with the execution" later in the day. Procedures to carry out the death sentence began at about 8 p.m. CDT (0100 GMT). Christa Pike is escorted from Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, US, on March 30, 1996, after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen A. Slemmer. (Reuters) Journalists who witnessed the attempted execution described snoring, loud exhales, gasps and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her, according to NBC News. At times, the curtain was closed and journalists could only hear sounds. "It appeared that this did not go like they thought it was supposed to go,” said John North, investigative producer at WBIR-TV in Knoxville. "But we don’t know that. When we left the building, so far as we knew, she was probably still alive.” An ambulance was seen arriving at the prison and then leaving. Tennessee prison officials in May aborted attempts to execute a man convicted of murders after failing to find a suitable vein for a lethal injection.
US death row inmate Christa Pike in hospital after surviving two lethal injections, lawyers say
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.
Oct 1, 2026 · byEuronews
Supreme Court allows for execution of only woman on Tennessee’s death row
Updated at 10:45 p.m. EDT on Sept. 30 The Supreme Court on Wednesday night cleared the way for the execution of Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. In a brief, unsigned order , the court lifted a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that had paused Pike’s execution shortly before it was scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the decision to lift the stay of execution, in a three-page opinion that was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor wrote that she saw “no reason to short-circuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision.” Pike was convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. She sought post-conviction relief in state court, arguing that at her sentencing her trial counsel should have presented evidence regarding the sexual abuse that she suffered as a child. Her efforts to obtain state and federal post-conviction relief were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, Pike filed a motion in federal court to reopen her federal post-conviction case. She pointed to the state’s recent concession – at odds, she said, with its prior contentions – that she “was a teenaged survivor of child sexual abuse and rape who was struggling with unmedicated bipolar disorder and PTSD at the time of her crime.” By a vote of 2-1, the 6th Circuit on Wednesday morning put Pike’s execution on hold to give that court time to consider the arguments made by Pike and the state. The state came quickly to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to lift the lower court’s order. It called Pike’s latest filing an “abusive, tactical delay” and “nothing more than an attempt to relitigate the merits of” a claim that had already been rejected. Pike countered that, even if the lower courts ultimately do not grant her motion to reopen the federal case, “[a]t the very least,” the Supreme Court “should allow the Sixth Circuit to issue its decision.” “It is inconceivable,” she said, “that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child sexual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant’s moral culpability.” Shortly before 7 p.m. EDT, the Supreme Court granted the state’s request. It did not provide any explanation for its decision. Sotomayor wrote that the majority’s decision to lift the 6th Circuit’s order “interferes with the Sixth Circuit’s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim.” “Tennessee’s desire to expedite Pike’s execution by a few days or even weeks cannot outweigh her ‘fundamental interest in [her] own life,’” Sotomayor said. A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction told the Associated Press that “it would proceed with Pike’s execution Wednesday night ahead of a midnight cutoff on the state’s execution order.” Later on Wednesday, the AP reported that “Tennessee officials were unable to put” Pike to death, citing media witnesses. While the execution appeared to still be underway, Pike’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene and “immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in ‘unnecessary agony’ and it was violating her right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment.” The AP noted that “[t]hey also filed motions in” a federal district court and the 6th Circuit.
Oct 1, 2026 · bySCOTUSblog
Execution of lone woman on Tennessee's death row paused by federal appeals court
Christa Pike, 50, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Sep 30, 2026 · byABC News
Execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted an hour before it was due to happen
Pike was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Sep 30, 2026 · byBBC
Tennessee to execute a woman for first time in 200 years after governor denies clemency
Lawyers for Christa Pike, 50, convicted of killing classmate in Knoxville in 1995, ask supreme court to grant stay Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years. Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. Continue reading...
Sep 28, 2026 · byThe Guardian