Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday night, September 30, for the 1995 torture murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, but two doses of the execution drug failed to kill her.
Surviving the chamber does not mean she is free of her sentence. Courts have let states try again before, and in 2024 Alabama came back and executed two men it had failed to execute in 2022.
Story Snapshot
- Pike, now 50, was sent to death row for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
- Witnesses said she was still alive more than 40 minutes after two doses of pentobarbital.
- She is in the hospital in critical condition, her lawyers said Thursday, October 1. They say they have not been allowed to see or speak with her.
- Gov. Bill Lee ordered an outside review and halted the state’s last execution set for 2026.
- A 1947 Supreme Court ruling allows a state to try again after a failed execution.
What Happened Inside Tennessee’s Death Chamber
The day began with a delay. A federal appeals court stayed the execution Wednesday morning to review claims about abuse Pike suffered as a child. Later Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted that stay and cleared the state to go ahead before the death warrant ran out at midnight. The injection began around 7:34 p.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Witnesses said staff gave Pike two full doses of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative Tennessee uses as its execution drug. More than 40 minutes after the second dose, she was still alive. Witnesses said she was snoring and kicking her feet. Pike said, “The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” At 8:53 p.m. the curtain closed and media witnesses were led out. One said, “A lot of this attempted execution happened when we could not see.”
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion saying she had not lost consciousness and still had a heartbeat. She was then taken to an outside hospital. Her lawyers said, “Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed as to her condition.” The Department of Correction said its staff “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol.”
The Crime That Put Her On Death Row
In 1995, Pike was 18 and in a job training program. She lured classmate Colleen Slemmer to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee. There she tortured Slemmer and killed her with a rock. Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram carved in her chest, and Pike kept a piece of the girl’s skull. Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Earlier in the week, Gov. Lee denied Pike clemency, the governor’s power to lessen a sentence, and said he would uphold it. Her lawyers had argued her childhood abuse was never fully weighed when she was sentenced. The courts let the sentence stand.
Is She Off The Hook?
History says no. Willie Francis was 17 when Louisiana strapped him into the electric chair in 1946, and the chair failed to kill him. His lawyers argued that sending him back would punish him twice for one crime. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed in 1947 and let Louisiana try again. Francis was executed that same year.
The same thing has happened in our own time. Alabama could not finish the executions of Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith in the fall of 2022, because staff could not get the IV lines in before the death warrants expired. Both men were later executed with nitrogen gas, Smith in January 2024 and Miller that September. The one well-known exception is Romell Broom, who survived Ohio’s attempt in 2009 and died in prison in 2020 before the state tried again.
Tennessee has not set a new date for Pike, and Gov. Lee has ordered an outside review of what went wrong. The Supreme Court’s 1947 ruling still stands.
The Governor Calls A Halt
Shortly before midnight, Gov. Lee said he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” He also stopped the state’s one remaining execution for 2026. That postpones the execution of Gary Wayne Sutton, which had been set for December 3.
The failed attempt troubles people on both sides of the death penalty. Supporters expect the state to carry out a lawful sentence for a brutal crime. Opponents say the method risks needless pain. Both want the same thing from the state: when it uses its most serious power, it must do the job right every time. The outside review is meant to show exactly what went wrong in the chamber on Wednesday night.
Sources:
redstate.com, cbsnews.com, usatoday.com, nbcnews.com, cnn.com, axios.com, nytimes.com, yahoo.com, cbc.ca, tennessean.com, newswest9.com, wsmv.com, abc7.com
