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Christa Pike

Case file · Tennessee

Last updated 23 October 2026

Summary

Christa Gail Pike is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. She was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps, committed when Pike was 18.

Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection on 30 September 2026 was halted after two doses of the execution drug failed. The governor has paused executions and ordered an independent review, and no new date has been set.

The crime

On 12 January 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, and Shadolla Peterson, 18, took Colleen Slemmer to a secluded area near the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus in Knoxville. All four were in the Knoxville Job Corps training programme. Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was interested in Shipp.

Evidence at trial showed Slemmer was beaten and cut before she was killed. A Knox County jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and sentenced her to death in 1996, finding that the murder involved torture or serious physical abuse.

Shipp, who was 17 and could not face the death penalty, received a life sentence. Peterson, who acted as a lookout, testified for the prosecution and was sentenced to probation.

Legal history

  1. 12 January 1995Colleen Slemmer killed in Knoxville; Pike arrested two days later
  2. 30 March 1996Sentenced to death by a Knox County jury, aged 20
  3. 2004Convicted of attempted first-degree murder over a 2001 attack on another inmate
  4. 2023Knox County judge denies a motion to reopen her post-conviction case
  5. 2025Tennessee Supreme Court sets an execution date of 30 September 2026
  6. 30 September 2026Execution attempt halted after two doses of pentobarbital; Pike taken to hospital
  7. 1 October 2026Governor Bill Lee orders an independent review and pauses executions for the rest of 2026
  8. 3 October 2026Head of the Tennessee Department of Correction resigns; former US Attorney Ed Stanton to lead the review

Current status

Pike survived the execution attempt and spent several days in hospital. On 10 October 2026 she was discharged and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where her lawyers say she is receiving medical care. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, she is the first person known to have survived after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.

Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review of what happened, led by former US Attorney Ed Stanton, and paused all Tennessee executions for the rest of 2026. A Davidson County judge has ordered prison officials to preserve all evidence connected to the failed execution. Pike's attorneys are asking the governor to commute her sentence to life without the possibility of parole. No new execution date has been set.

Sources

  1. Tennessee Lookout: governor orders review, pauses executions
  2. Courthouse News / AP: governor calls failed execution deeply disturbing
  3. CNN: Tennessee's prisons chief resigning
  4. PBS NewsHour: Pike conscious and speaking, attorneys say
  5. WSMV: state sets execution date
  6. WVLT: motion to reopen denied (2023)
  7. ThePrint: background to the trial and sentence

Latest updates

  • 22 October 2026 In a court filing, Pike's lawyer Randy Spivey, who was in the execution chamber, gave the most detailed account yet: the IV team used about 10 needles across both arms and warned that some veins may have ruptured before the drug was given. He says that when he asked for a phone to try to halt the execution, he was taken on a seven-minute walk through the prison rather than allowed to use one in the witness room. The filing supports a wider legal challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection protocol. Source ↗
  • 22 October 2026 The court hearing set for 23 October was cancelled. The state's request for a deadline for Pike to amend her complaint will now be decided without a hearing. Source ↗
  • 20 October 2026 A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the failed execution found that about a third of Americans think authorities should attempt a second execution if the first fails, while 39% think the prisoner should instead serve life in prison and 26% were unsure. Tennessee faces that question in Pike's case. Source ↗
Show all 8 updates
  • 19 October 2026 Pike's attorneys asked for four months, rather than the 30 days originally allowed, to prepare their argument that her constitutional rights were violated, saying they need time to assess her injuries. Lawyers for the state agreed only to a 30-day extension. Source ↗
  • 15 October 2026 A leading US death penalty expert said Pike could avoid execution altogether if the two doses of pentobarbital have left her with lasting mental impairment, as prisoners who are not mentally competent cannot be executed.
  • 13 October 2026 Recordings of the emergency calls, first obtained by the AP news agency, show confusion between prison staff and call handlers after the failed execution. The first call was made at 8:40 pm, and around half an hour passed before officials confirmed the emergency was genuine; Pike remained on the gurney for roughly an hour and a half before an ambulance took her to hospital. The Department of Correction has not said what went wrong. Source ↗
  • 10 October 2026 Pike was discharged from hospital and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she is receiving medical care. A Davidson County judge has ordered prison officials to preserve all evidence connected to the failed execution. Source ↗
  • 1 October 2026 According to Pike's attorneys, it took the execution team around an hour and at least seven needle attempts to get an IV into her arm, and they believe the drug ended up in the surrounding tissue instead of her bloodstream. Witnesses could not see into the chamber between 8:05 pm and 8:53 pm, when they were taken out, and what happened inside during that time has not been explained. Source ↗