October 7, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Death row inmate Christa Pike has regained consciousness after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are set to head to court Wednesday to seek more information about what went wrong.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as executioners attempted to put her to death Sept. 30 for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike is believed to be the only person to survive after lethal injection drugs were administered.
Pike didn't deny she killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The two were classmates at Knoxville Job Corps.
Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend slashed Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved, and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
Slemmer's mother witnessed the execution attempt and said her daughter didn't get justice.
“I watched the whole thing. She was awake. She was laughing. She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn’t work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn’t work the second time, so she’s in the hospital and alive," May Martinez said by telephone.
Pike’s attorneys are set to appear in court Wednesday as they are seeking more information from the Tennessee Department of Correction. Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has scheduled a Wednesday morning status conference in Nashville in the case.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys for Pike said in a statement. Pike’s prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery, the attorneys said. They said Pike's arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and that she is handcuffed to the hospital bed.
Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.
Attorneys with the Tennessee attorney general’s office wrote in a Tuesday court filing that the court order is unnecessary because the prison system is “obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved.” They said state officials have taken “the necessary steps to obtain medical care for Pike and ascertain what occurred.”
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called what happened “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.
Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike’s attorneys wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”
The attempted execution got underway around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point, she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to a hospital.
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