Failed execution of Christa Pike
2026 failed execution
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On September 30, 2026, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute 50-year-old Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for her murder of Colleen Slemmer the previous year. Pike would have been the first woman executed in the state since 1820.[1] The lethal injection, which took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, failed to deliver death for unknown reasons. As of October 4, Pike remains unconscious and in critical condition.[2] The failed execution, which many sources described as "botched,"[3][4] sparked renewed conversation around the ethics of the death penalty in general, and lethal injection in particular.
Background
Christa Pike
Christa Gail Pike was born 10 March 1976 in Beckley, West Virginia. She experienced sexual abuse as a child, and displayed behavioral issues which led her to be placed in a youth detention center in 1991.[5] She also struggled with her mental health, attempting suicide at age 12. She was released from the juvenile center in 1993, after earning her GED there, and subsequently enrolled in a Job Corps program in Nashville, Tennessee.
Murder of Colleen Slemmer
On January 12, 1995, Pike, who was eighteen at the time, collaborated with her friend Shadolla Peterson and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp to lure Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer into woods near the University of Tennessee campus, where Pike and Shipp tortured her, with Peterson acting as lookout, until Pike killed Slemmer by crushing her head with a large piece of asphalt. Pike committed the murder out of jealousy; she was worried that Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.[6]
Trial and life in prison
After Pike refused a plea deal entailing a sentence of life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea,[7] a jury found Pike guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. In 1996, she was sentenced to death for the murder charge and to 25 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. In 2004, Pike received a further sentence of 25 years in prison for attempted first-degree murder a 2001 attack on fellow inmate Patricia Jones. Jones later stated that Pike's attack was an intervention in an altercation between Jones and another inmate, which Jones stated would have resulted in the other woman's death but for Pike's actions.[8] According to Appellate Judge John Everett Williams, "her stated intention was to protect" fellow inmate Natasha Cornett, but "there was ample evidence by her actions and [Pike's] own words that contradicted this position."[9] In 2012, an escape attempt involving collaboration with an outside correspondent of Pike's, Donald Kohut, and a Corrections officer, Justin Heflin, was discovered and prevented.[10] Pike appealed her death sentence several times; among the grounds on which she based her appeals were ineffective assistance of counsel; mental illness; and the unconstitutionality of the death penalty as administered in Tennessee.[11]
Timeline of attempted execution
Final appeals
In an unsigned statement issued shortly before 7:00 p.m. on September 30, the Supreme Court of the United States lifted a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had that had paused Pike’s execution on the morning of the scheduled execution.[12]
Failed execution
The curtain to the execution room was raised at 7:27 p.m., at which time Pike was already strapped to a gurney, with an IV in her arm. According to her attorney, prison officials had spent over an hour trying to establish an IV line, a process which involved at least seven needles. At 7:30 p.m., Pike gave a final statement in which she stated “I’m ready to be free ... [t]his is a happy day.” She then sang a song with her spiritual adviser. Two doses of pentobarbital were administered in the minutes that followed. According to media witness Tori Gessner, " [a]t 7:34 p.m. Pike said her arm felt like it was about to burst and she appeared to be talking, breathing, moaning and snoring over the following minutes." The execution-room curtain was lowered again at 7:46, then reopened at 7:49, according to Gessner; at this point, Pike was still audibly snoring. Media witnesses were removed at 8:53 p.m.[13] At 9:14, a fire truck and ambulances arrived at the prison.[1]
Aftermath
Pike was removed to the hospital, where as of October 4 she remains "unconscious and on a ventilator," according to one of her attorneys.[14]
Reactions
Resignation of Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner
Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada resigned in the wake of the failed execution.[15]
Suspension of further executions in Tennessee
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee stated that he has ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred," and that the other Tennessee execution scheduled for 2026 would not take place until at least the next year.[16]
Media criticism of Tennessee execution practices
Justin Mazzola, Deputy Director of Research for Amnesty International USA, a group which opposes the death penalty broadly, stated that:[4]
“This is the second time in less than five months that Tennessee has botched an execution, with Tony Carruthers having a similar experience in May. Not only does Tennessee have an extended history of botched executions, but its authorities have pursued executions also by shrouding in secrecy its lethal injection process. The extraordinary display of cruelty is emblematic of why the death penalty must be immediately abolished. There is no humane way for the state to kill someone. The death penalty system is broken beyond repair. It is a violation of human rights, and no government should have the power to carry it out.
The New York Times published an op-ed by anesthesiologist and intensive care physician Joel Zivot, in which Zivot discusses the possible mechanics of the lethal injection failure, and writes that: "Gov. Bill Lee has said that as far as he knows, the Department of Correction followed its protocol exactly. I take him at his word. That is the problem. Lethal injection failures are not glitches; they are features of the process."[17]