Christa Pike, a Tennessee death-row inmate convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995, survived an execution attempt on Wednesday after prison officials administered two doses of the lethal-injection drug pentobarbital.
Gatekeepers News reports that Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but she remained alive after the second dose. She was later taken by ambulance to an outside medical facility, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Pike’s lawyers said she remained conscious during part of the procedure and was still breathing after the second injection. Witnesses also reported hearing her breathing and snoring before the execution chamber was closed. Her current medical condition has not been publicly disclosed.
The execution followed a series of legal challenges on Wednesday. A federal appeals court temporarily halted the execution shortly before it was scheduled to take place, but the US Supreme Court later allowed Tennessee to proceed.
Pike’s case stems from the January 1995 killing of Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center.
Pike, who was 18 at the time, was with her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and Shadolla Peterson when Slemmer was taken to a wooded area. Prosecutors said Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer and killed her.
Slemmer was beaten and stabbed, while a pentagram was carved into her body. Shipp later admitted his involvement in the killing.
Peterson, who was also 18, was present during the incident and was described as acting as a lookout. She later testified against Pike and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the murder. She received probation rather than a prison sentence.
A major piece of evidence in the case was a fragment of Slemmer’s skull that investigators found inside Pike’s black leather jacket after the murder.
According to court records, Pike had shown another Job Corps student, Kimberly Iloilo, a piece of Slemmer’s skull after the killing and described it as a souvenir. Police later recovered the fragment from Pike’s jacket, and a forensic anthropologist testified that it matched a missing portion of Slemmer’s skull.
Pike and Shipp were arrested after the killing and eventually confessed to their involvement. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy and sentenced to death.
Shipp, who was 17 when Slemmer was killed, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Peterson’s cooperation with prosecutors resulted in her probation sentence.
Pike’s lawyers have continued to challenge her death sentence, arguing that evidence concerning her childhood abuse and other aspects of her background were not adequately considered during sentencing.
The failed execution has now triggered a review of Tennessee’s execution procedures. Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review of what happened and suspended the state’s remaining scheduled executions for 2026.
Tennessee officials said they followed the state’s execution protocol during Wednesday’s procedure. The state has not announced another execution date for Pike.
For now, Pike remains alive and in state custody after surviving two lethal injections. Her medical condition and the legal consequences of the failed execution remain unclear.
