WorldPosted at: Oct 1 2026 6:14PM


US death-row convict Christa Pike survives execution after 2 lethal injections

Nashville, Oct 1 (UNI) Twin attempts by a US state to execute death-row inmate Christa Pike ended without her death after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital before taking her to hospital for emergency treatment.
Pike, 50, had been due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in at least 200 years. She was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, a killing that drew national attention because a pentagram was carved into the victim’s body.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked Slemmer after luring her into a wooded area in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her, while Shipp admitted carving the pentagram into her body. Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence.
Pike has never denied responsibility for the killing. Her lawyers, however, have argued that jurors who sentenced her to death did not hear the full extent of her history of severe childhood sexual abuse and neglect. Pike was also later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, which her defence has said were relevant to her mental state at the time of the crime.
The execution had already been thrown into uncertainty hours before it was due to take place on Wednesday. About an hour before the scheduled lethal injection, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a temporary stay to examine claims raised by Pike’s lawyers, including whether evidence concerning her childhood abuse had been properly considered.
The Tennessee attorney general’s office immediately appealed to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the last-minute intervention should be overturned. The Supreme Court subsequently cleared the way for the execution to proceed.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Sotomayor said the ruling allowed the execution to go ahead “before her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction can be properly considered”.
The Tennessee Department of Correction then began the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Pike received two injections of pentobarbital, but remained alive afterwards. Her lawyers said she was still breathing and could be heard snoring around 40 minutes after the injections. Prison officials eventually stopped the procedure and Pike was taken by ambulance to an outside hospital, where one of her lawyers said she was receiving life-saving treatment.
The Department of Correction said its execution protocol did not allow for additional procedures beyond those carried out that evening. The protocol does not clearly set out what should happen if an inmate remains alive after the permitted doses. Authorities had not publicly explained why the injections failed to kill Pike.
Governor Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive third-party review of the execution attempt and suspended Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026 pending the review.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, who had been supportive of Pike’s execution from the start called the botched attempt “a mess”. Martinez said that she had waited decades to see the sentence go through.
The case has also drawn renewed scrutiny from death-penalty opponents. Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, said the circumstances raised questions about the secrecy surrounding lethal injection procedures and what had gone wrong during Pike’s execution attempt.
It remains unclear whether Tennessee will seek to execute Pike again. The state’s execution order had been due to expire at midnight, potentially requiring a new execution date to be set.
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