Tennessee Halts Executions After Christa Pike Survives Lethal Injection
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike was in critical condition Thursday, October 1, after surviving an attempted execution at Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution the previous day, according to her lawyers. Gov. Bill Lee has postponed further executions this year and ordered an independent review.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate. Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the case. She has acknowledged her role in the killing; her supporters have cited her mental health diagnoses and allegations of abuse in arguing against her execution.
The execution attempt lasted more than 90 minutes. Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey said the team spent about an hour trying to establish intravenous access and administered two doses of pentobarbital. Pike remained alive and was taken to a hospital Wednesday night. Her lawyers said Thursday that they did not know her prognosis or whether she had suffered brain damage.
Attorney Steve Ferrell said Pike had a longstanding condition that made it difficult to draw her blood. He suggested the IV might not have entered a vein properly, but the cause of the failed execution has not been established. Lee said prison staff appeared to have followed procedure.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, traveled to Nashville to witness the execution. She told The Associated Press that she was upset by the outcome and felt her daughter had not received justice. Pike’s lawyers, meanwhile, are seeking to have her death sentence commuted.
The incident was Tennessee’s second unsuccessful execution attempt this year. In the earlier case, officials could not find a suitable vein, and no drugs were administered. Tennessee adopted a single-drug pentobarbital procedure in 2024, replacing a three-drug protocol.
Lee’s review will examine what happened during Wednesday’s attempt. Until its findings are available, the reason Pike survived the administered doses remains unclear.