Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, survived a botched execution attempt on Sept. 30, in what would have made her the first woman to be executed in the state in over 200 years.
Pike, 50, was convicted of murder for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer at the Job Corps campus in Knoxville, Tennessee, when she was 18 years old.
The execution Wednesday went awry quickly, according to USA TODAY. After Pike received two syringes filled with lethal chemicals, she was still alive and experiencing "unnecessary agony," her attorneys said in an emergency motion filed in the Tennessee Supreme Court to immediately stop the process. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance to get medical care.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said shortly before
midnight that he ordered an investigation into what went wrong and has postponed the state's one remaining execution scheduled for this year, that of convicted killer Gary Wayne Sutton on Dec. 3.
Here's what to know about Christa Pike and her case.
Who is Christa Pike?
Christa Pike was a student at the Knoxville Job Corps, a federal job training program, when she brutally killed fellow student Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Born in West Virginia in 1976, Pike had an extremely traumatic upbringing marked by violence, sexual abuse and substance abuse. Her attorneys say she developed severe mental illness as a result.
Pike has been on death row at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville since she was convicted in 1996. While in prison in 2001, she attempted to kill another incarcerated woman, Patricia Jones, by strangling her with a shoestring. She was convicted of attempted murder in 2004.
Who was Colleen Slemmer?
Colleen Slemmer was a 19-year-old student at the Knoxville Job Corps when Pike, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp lured her to a remote area of the University of Tennessee agricultural campus to carry out the killing.
What happened during the murder of Colleen Slemmer?
While at Job Corps in Knoxville, Pike began dating fellow student Shipp. Prosecutors said Pike and her friend, Peterson, plotted to kill Slemmer when she suspected Slemmer of trying to steal her boyfriend.
The three students killed Slemmer on Jan. 12, 1995. The killing involved a lengthy beating and torture during which the killers etched a pentagram into Slemmer's chest and Pike took a piece of her skull.
When was Christa Pike sentenced?
Pike confessed to the crime and was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder at trial on March 22, 1996. She was sentenced to death by electrocution on March 30, 1996.
Her planned execution on Sept. 30 would have made her the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years.
What happened to Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp?
Shadolla Peterson turned state witness and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. She received a six-year probationary sentence.
Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life. He was denied parole in Oct. 2025 "due to the seriousness of the offense." His case is scheduled to be reviewed again in six years, in October 2031.
What has happened with Christa Pike's execution?
Pike was set to be executed Wednesday, Sept. 30, after her most recent attempt to have a judge review her case was denied in October 2023. However, the execution failed and Pike was taken to the hospital.
If Pike's execution succeeded, she would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years and only the 19th in the U.S. in the last 50 years. She was sentenced to death for the brutal and prolonged 1995 murder of her romantic rival, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has repeatedly called for Pike's execution.
Pike has since said that she was experiencing an acute mental health crisis during the killing. A psychologist told The Nashville Tennessean in 2023 that she believed Pike was not in touch with reality at the time.
She previously filed a federal lawsuit arguing that she is subject to de facto solitary confinement as the only woman on death row because those sentenced to death are housed separately from all other incarcerated people. She has been the only woman on Tennessee's death row since 2010, when then-Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted the death sentence of Gaile Owens, who died in 2010.
USA TODAY's Amanda Lee Myers and Kirsten Fiscus contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Who is Christa Pike? Tennessee's only woman on death row survives lethal injection
