She just wouldn’t die. Christa Pike should be dead. She should’ve been dead on Wednesday, but a stay was issued regarding a review of mitigating circumstances in her case. In 1995, Pike brutally tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, whom she felt was trying to steal her boyfriend. After beating and cutting her, Pike bashed Slemmer’s head in with a rock and kept a piece of her skull. She’s a bad woman who deserves to die.
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Yet, when it was ordered to proceed with her execution Wednesday night, she didn’t die. Two lethal injection attempts, and she was later rushed to the hospital. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has postponed all executions for the rest of 2026. Pike is set to be the first woman executed in the state in over 200 years. Pike remains in critical condition, with reported brain damage (via NYT):
#BREAKING: Christa Pike is still alive but in critical condition and “receiving lifesaving medical care.”
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) October 1, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorney says Christa Pike is still alive a day after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection.
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) October 1, 2026
Oh so we are acknowledging a heartbeat indicates life now. https://t.co/dE4ZgTLTC8
— AJZ (@ajzeigler) October 1, 2026
Christa Pike likely has ‘brain injury’ after botched execution – here’s what went wrong: ‘Degraded’ drugs, damaged veins https://t.co/NpPBsQCDdP pic.twitter.com/fb4vJDYKjQ
— New York Post (@nypost) October 1, 2026
The death row inmate Christa Pike was in critical condition and receiving medical care, her lawyers said Thursday, a day after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her. They called for Gov. Bill Lee to reduce her sentence to life in prison, calling the botched attempt to end her life with two doses of pentobarbital “cruel and torturous.”
The failed execution on Wednesday night was the state’s second bungled death penalty attempt this year, and Mr. Lee on Thursday said he was suspending executions — including Ms. Pike’s — to allow an independent review.
Lawyers for Ms. Pike said that did not go far enough, and urged Mr. Lee to take her off death row. “This is awful, and this kind of thing should never happen again,” said one of her lawyers, Randy Spivey.
Mr. Lee previously denied a similar request and his office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Speaking to reporters earlier Thursday, he said the failed execution “shouldn’t have happened.” He added, “We should find out what happened and make those changes necessary to do what the people of this state want done.”
The governor said it was not immediately clear who would conduct the independent review, but said that the Tennessee Department of Correction appeared to have followed its procedures.
Ms. Pike, 50, was to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. It was not clear why the execution attempt failed. Mr. Spivey said it had taken an hour to establish an intravenous line, and that he had counted seven needles used in her left arm alone.
In 1996, Ms. Pike was found guilty of torturing and murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in an attack carried out with her boyfriend and another friend. They slashed at Ms. Slemmer with a box cutter, carved a pentagram into her chest and removed a piece of her skull.
Ms. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has long favored Ms. Pike’s execution. “Nobody remembers Colleen,” she told The New York Times last month.
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The protocol was initially reported to have been followed, with questions about where the IV was inserted into Pike’s veins. But now that’s in doubt.
Pike must die. The court has determined this, though there is a chance she will remain in prison without parole after this circus.
The doctor tells me Pike may suffer from a flurry of long-term effects. This includes skin necrosis, permanent scarring, functional impairment, compartment syndrome, chronic neuropathic pain and pigmentation change at the injection site.
Won’t know for a couple days. (2/2)
— Steve Mehling (@SteveMehlNews) October 1, 2026
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