Christa Pike, the Tennessee woman who survived a lethal injection executin, was reported to be conscious and speaking on Oct. 6. She survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital on Sept. 30.
Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row for over 30 years and the first woman in the state to be sentenced to death in 200 years
, was rushed to a Nashville area hospital after two attempts to execute her failed. The attempted execution took place after the U.S. Supreme Court denied her plea for clemency.The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then ordered Pike's execution to be stayed until further notice. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee then asked the Supreme Court to overrule the 6th Circuit's decision, which it did, and the state proceeded
with Pike's execution.
Pike's execution, originally scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sept. 30, carried on in the early evening the same day.
On Oct. 7, Pike's attorneys appeared in Davidson County Chancery Court after they filed a motion on Oct. 2 requesting that relevant evidence related to Pike's execution be preserved and that they be given access to Pike to independently document her medical condition. Both requests were granted by Chancellor I'Ashea Myles.
Here's what to know about the case.
What's Christa Pike's latest status?
During an Oct. 7 press conference, attorney Randy Spivey said Pike woke up Oct. 6 and began talking, "to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including her medical team."
Spivey said that medical professionals thought she may have been brain-dead just a day before she began speaking and were preparing to remove her from life support.
Pike's attorneys said she has a blood clot, pneumonia and cannot swallow food nor move her arms. Spivey compared the swelling in her hands to an inflated hospital glove.
"She is angry and confused about everything right now," Spivey said. "She is very aware that the state tried to execute her."
Pike remains hospitalized, shackled at one hand and both of her feet. Attorney Luke Ihnen asked the judge to order that her hand be unshackled since it was causing problems for medical personnel. Chancellor Myles is seeking more information from medical staff and said she would rule on that later.
Who is Christa Pike? What did she do to end up in death row?
Pike was born in West Virginia in 1976.She was reportedly born with brain damage due to her mother's alcohol and drug use during her pregnancy.
Her childhood was marked by sexual abuse, neglect and rape. She was first raped by her grandmother's boyfriend when she was a toddler. She was raped again by a neighbor when she was 11. Pike first attempted to take her own life when she was 12. When Pike was 17, she was pulled into the woods and was beaten and again raped by a stranger.
Pike, in hopes of becoming a nurse, enrolled in the Job Corps in Knoxville, Tennessee, a federal program designed to provide troubled youth with job skills.
During her time as a Job Corps student, Pike met her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. The two, alongside Shadolla Peterson, who served as a lookout, brutally murdered another Job Corps student, Colleen Slemmer, 19, whom Pike believed had a romantic interest in Shipp.
On March 22, 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and on March 30, 1996, was sentenced to death. She has been on Tennessee's death row in the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville since her conviction. In 2001, during her incarceration, Pike attempted to kill a fellow inmate, Patricia Jones, by strangling her with a shoestring. She was convicted of attempted murder in 2004.
In 2012 the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation intercepted a plan hatched by Pike and two accomplices to break Pike out of prison.
Who was Colleen Slemmer?
Slemmer was born in Orange Park, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville, on Sept. 20, 1975. She was described as a "nerd" but a "good nerd" by her mother May Martinez, who said Slemmer loved roller skating, computers and playing old games with her family.
She often wore a shirt that said "Computer Geek" and could reportedly take apart a computer and put it back together. Slemmer's grandfather took note of her niche and recommended she go to Knoxville to enroll in the Job Corps program to learn how to work on computers.
Martinez also described her daughter as a sweet and helpful child. She said Slemmer would volunteer to help during Special Olympic competitions and helped paint her school building.
Martinez and Slemmer's stepfather, Raul Martinez have both said that Pike's execution had been long awaited.
What happened during the murder of Colleen Slemmer?
Martinez said she spoke to her daughter for the last time around 6 p.m. on Jan. 12, 1995. Slemmer told her mother that three students, Pike, Shipp and Peterson, were bothering her.
Later in the night Pike offered Slemmer marijuana and told her that she wanted to make amends. Pike's offer lured Slemmer to Tyson Park, a wooded area behind the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Agriculture Campus.
Pike and Shipp then beat and tortured Slemmer for up to half an hour while Peterson was on the lookout. A pentagram was carved into Slemmer's chest and Pike reportedly delivered the final blow, which dislodged a piece of Slemmer's skull. Pike took the piece of Slemmer's skull, and the next day showed it to classmates and bragged about the murder.
When was Christa Pike sentenced?
On March 22, 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On March 30, 1996, she was sentenced to death by electrocution.
Lethal injection became the state's primary method of execution in 2000. Inmates could still opt to be put to death via electrocution. In 2013 protocol changed and pentobarbital became the state's lethal injection drug. In 2024 pentobarbital became the state's only form of execution following another review.
What happened to Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp?
Peterson agreed to testify against Pike and Shipp and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. She was sentenced to six years probation.
Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Because he was 17 at the time of the murder, he was not eligible for the death penalty. Shipp is up for parole in 2031.
What has happened with Christa Pike's case?
After attempts to execute Pike failed, her legal team has been arguing for her sentence to be commuted to life in prison instead of the death penalty, arguing that undergoing another execution attempt would violate the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment.
There is tricky legal ground as some argue a 1947 U.S. Supreme Court case set precedent for this and says that the state can attempt to execute Pike again, while others argue that the failed execution was not an accident because lawyers warned TDOC this could happen due to Pike's blood condition, thrombocytosis.
Gov. Lee has not yet said what is plans for Pike are. In May, Lee granted a one-year reprieve to Tony Carruthers who was convicted of a triple murder after the state botched his execution. Lee upheld his commitment to the death penalty during an Oct. 1 press conference.
On Oct. 7, Chancellor Myles ordered evidence related to Pike's failed execution be preserved by the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Myles also ruled that Pike's attorneys could have access to her in the hospital, but notice would need to be given at least two hours before a requested meeting, a prison warden will grant access, and Pike's attorneys will still need to adhere to any hospital visitation policies.
Tennessean staff, Reuters contributed to this report.
Afton Pratt covers trending and breaking news for Knox News and Tennessee. She can be reached at ampratt@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Christa Pike is awake, confused after failed Tennessee execution. What did she do, latest condition
