The Execution That Failed: Christa Pike's Botched Execution

Trooper: It's 7:34 on a Wednesday evening, and the woman strapped to the gurney is still talking. Four minutes ago, the state of Tennessee injected her with a dose of pentobarbital, a drug meant to kill her. She told the witnesses gathered behind the glass that her arm felt like it was about to burst open. Then she kept breathing, kept moaning, and kept snoring. Over the next two and a half hours, they would try again. Close the curtains, open them. Close them again, and at the end of the night, an ambulance, not a hearse, would leave the prison. Christa Pike survived her own execution. No one in American history is known to have done that before. So this is a bonus episode of Troopers Crime Desk. And I'm going to tell you what happened on September 30th, 2026. And to do that, honestly, I have to start 31 years earlier with the 19-year-old whose murder is the reason. any of this happened. Her name is Colleen Slemmer Hey guys, it's your girl Trooper here, and thank you so much for joining me on another episode of Troopers Crime Desk. And if it's your first time here, then welcome to the squad. Now, this is the ever first bonus episode for this podcast. And I felt the need to do this because, guys, it has been a very wild week here. And it is just, it's still a developing story. So just throwing that out there. And I'm recording this on October 7th. And some of what I'll tell you is a court hearing from today, a governor's pending decisions, an investigation, just getting started and could change by the time you hear this. But I'll flag every open question as I go. Now, do want to point out this episode takes no position on the death penalty. It just reports what happens, what is alleged, and what comes next. So definitely want to just point out the facts right then and there. But this case blew up and I felt the need to do a bonus episode because I had made the episode literally a few days prior to Christa Pike's execution about the murder of Colleen Slummer, which blew up because of her execution a few days later. Now, here we are, because her execution was ultimately botched. She was not executed. There's plenty of details. There's plenty of questions. There's a whole bunch of rumors circulating all over social media. So I'm gonna give you guys a lowdown and I'm gonna give you guys all the details. Now, I do have to say this story has two halves, okay? And I'm going to hold them both. What happened to Colleen Slemmer in 1995 was brutal, and nothing that happened on September 30th changes that. So let's start with her. Now, Colleen Slemmer was born on September 20th 1975, in Orange Park, Florida. She grew up with her mother, May Martinez, and her stepfather and a younger sister. And by every account her family has given, she was the kind of teenager who looked outward. She volunteered with the Special Olympics, she spent time helping children with disabilities, and she loved computers and had an eye on a future in technology. In late 1994, at 19, Colleen enrolled at the Knoxville Job Corps Center in Tennessee, a federal program for young people training for careers. She went there to study computers and she had only been there a few weeks. Her mother, May Martinez, waited 30 years for the execution of the woman who killed her daughter. On September 30th, 2026, she was at the prison to watch it happen. Now keep her in mind. Everything that follows is downstream of what was taken from her family on January 9th in 1995. Now, on the night of January 12th, 1995, three fellow Job Corp students lured Colleen into a wooded area of the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus. Their names were Christa Pike, 18 years old, and her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their friend Shadolla Peterson, who acted as a lookout. Now, prosecutors said Christa believed Colleen was flirting with her boyfriend Tadaryl and that jealousy was the motive behind this entire thing. Now, what happened in those woods was torture. Colleen was beaten and stabbed over the course of nearly an hour. A pentagram was carved into her chest. Her skull was crushed by a large piece of asphalt. And afterward, Christa took a piece of Colleen's skull and showed it to people back on campus. Now Colleen Slemmer was 19 years old and she had been at Job Corps for weeks. You know, that is the whole of what happened and what matters about that night. Very unfortunate about what happened. I can't even begin to wrap my head around that. And if you guys want to know more details about the night of what happened, go watch my first episode. It is wild and jam-packed full of details about what happened that night. Now Christa was arrested within about a day or two. According to testimony at her preliminary hearing, she did confess, telling a detective she had decided to kill Colleen after, in her words, a voice in her head told her to finish it. Now we're gonna talk about the trial and the decades leading after, basically all the way up to this point. Now, in March of 96, Christa Pike was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and she was sentenced to death. And at that time, she was 20 years old. Now, her co-defendants fared differently. Her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp was 17 at the time, so he was too young for the death penalty and received life in prison with the possibility of parole. Shadolla Peterson pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and testified against the other two and received six years of probation. Now, Christa's attorneys have said she endured a severely traumatic childhood, violence, sexual abuse, neglect, and lived for years with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and PTSD. In 2001, while already on death row, she tried to strangle a fellow incarcerated woman with a shoestring. And was convicted of attempted murder in 2004 and got an additional 25 years already added on to her sentence, which to me you can add on the additional twenty five years, but she's still sentenced to death. So let's just be real. In 2010, she became the only woman on Tennessee's death row, and she stayed there for nearly thirty years, much of it in solitary confinement, according to her attorneys. Now, had the state succeeded On her execution date, September 30th, she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. And there's one more distinction her attorneys put before the courts. According to court documents obtained by People magazine, more than 3100 people in Tennessee have been convicted of first-degree homicide. Of those thousands, only eight were 18 years old at the time of the offense and sentenced to death. All seven of the men were sentenced before Christa, and every one of those sentences was later vacated. Had the execution gone forward, Christa would have been the only person Tennessee has executed in the modern area for a crime committed at 18. That's her attorney's argument from their filings, and it's part of why they say her case was already an outlier before September 30th ever happened. And one more thing, her attorneys put on the record before September 30th because it landed very differently a week later. Now, according to court documents obtained by the US Sun, Christa's lawyer specifically warned the Tennessee Supreme Court that she could survive the lethal injection and that the state's protocol contained no plan for medical care or resuscitation if she did. The court rejected that argument. And my mind was blown because here you have the defendant who knew what she did was wrong and is still sentenced to death regardless. And her attorneys and legal team sitting here in front of the court system telling them that she could survive the lethal injection because of what her veins were like and her medical history. And they just did not want to listen. Now her fears, the judges wrote, were too speculative. Pentobarbital had been used in more than a hundred executions without incident. And quote, the state is under no obligation to attempt revival. Now, when Christa raised concerns about her veins, the court called those mere possibilities or hypotheticals. Seven days later, she was alive after two rounds of pentobarbital. And on the way to the hospital in an ambulance. That's the attorney's account from the filings. And it's now part of why they're asking a judge to preserve every needle, every record, every email from that night. The execution was originally scheduled for the morning, but that morning, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals paused it, and later in the day the US Supreme Court lifted that pause. By evening, it was going forward. Here's a timeline of that night assembled from the accounts of the media witnesses who were in the room, reporters from WKRN, WPLN, and the Nashville Banner. and from statements from her own attorneys and legal team. Now the state itself has not publicly explained what went wrong pending investigation. At 6:41 PM Central Time, the witnesses were brought into the witness chamber. At about 7:26, the blinds opened. Christa was already strapped to the gurney, an IV in her arm. Her attorneys say prison officials had spent over an hour trying to place the IV line, using they allege at least seven needles. That already in itself is red flag, number one, two, and three. Okay, there's a lot going on here already. They didn't even inject her yet. At 7:30, Christa gave her final statement. According to reporting, she said, quote, I'm ready to be free. This is a happy day. Then she sang a song with her spiritual advisor who was there in the room, and the first dose of pentobarbital went in. At 7:34, which is four minutes later, she said her arm felt like it was about to burst open, and witnesses say she kept talking, kept breathing, moaning, and snoring. At 7:46, the curtains closed. At 7:49, they opened again, and by the witnesses' accounts, a second dose had to be administered. Cause she was still talking and alive. Christa was snoring with her mouth open at that time. She started grunting and making choking sounds. At 8:05, the curtains closed again, and the witnesses sat in the dark. And at 8:53, they were escorted out, having never been told what was happening. Now, just to give you guys some information, now usually they get the inmate ready. For the lethal injection. They get them on the gurney, they get the IV going. The witnesses are brought into the chamber. They open up the curtains. They in inject the lethal injection into the the inmate. Basically, they watch the inmate die, you know, and then they close the curtains. It's kind of a quick process, but not too quick. It just depends on the person and how much they have to use. But the times itself aren't really lining up. And one reporter did report because I was watching the live coverage of this that when they were in the waiting area before they got into the witness chamber to actually watch her be executed, they're typically in there only about 10-15 minutes, and they were waiting almost an hour. So already something is up here. Now, one reporter, Stephen Hale of the Nashville Banner, later said, quote I cannot emphasize enough how much of whatever just happened happened behind a closed curtain when Christa Pike was still alive. And at 9:14, and I can remember this because I was watching the live coverage and I was waiting for the press conference to announce that she was in fact dead. A firetruck and ambulance arrived at the prison. We're we're just gonna stop there because you don't call an ambulance to a prison unless you're trying to save someone or unless something is happening, like a medical emergency. So that right there should tell you something went wrong. Something went down in that room. Something is happening because you don't call an ambulance to an execution. Okay. I I don't know who you call. It's not Ghostbusters, but it's definitely not an ambulance. Okay, so let's just say that. Now, during the attempt, her attorneys had filed an emergency motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court, begging the court to stop it. By then, prison officials had stopped trying and called an ambulance instead. Now, Christa was taken to a Nashville area hospital unconscious and on a ventilator. And she wasn't the only one whose night had been building up for decades. Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, was at the prison that evening. She had waited 30 years for this. And I cannot express enough how bad I feel for her. Regardless of whether you agree with the death penalty or not, someone is being put to death. When the victim's family comes, they're expecting a certain outcome. And to not get that outcome, I can't even begin to feel what she's feeling. Now, she had told People magazine beforehand that Christa had never apologized for killing her daughter, and that she wanted finally to see justice. And she watched the state try for two and a half hours and fail. Her attorneys believed the IV lines were improperly placed or that her veins had blown, so that some or all of the pentobarbital went into the tissue of her arm instead of her bloodstream. Now, for those of you that don't know, pentobarbital is highly alkaline and caustic. Her attorneys say it burned and blistered both of her arms. Now you're probably wondering why both of her arms? If usually when you get blood work, there is just one IV. Well, in this case, when someone is being put to death via lethal injection, They actually have to have two IV lines, a primary and a backup, which is exactly what happened. They also say they had warned the state beforehand that Christa's small veins and a blood disorder would make IV placement especially difficult, and that those warnings were literally shrugged off. And the state has not responded to that claim. Now, according to Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center, no one had ever survived the administration of lethal injection drugs before. Christa is believed to be the only person in the United States known to have survived a complete execution attempt. Now, two and a half hours, that's roughly how long it took from the first dose to the ambulance. And next we're gonna get into the aftermath. What happened next came fast. Governor Bill Lee halted all remaining executions in Tennessee for the rest of 2026 and ordered what he called a comprehensive third party review to determine exactly what occurred. The one execution still on the calendar, Gary Wayne Sutton, set for December 3rd, was postponed. Now, on October 3rd, the state's corrections commissioner Frank Strada resigned. In his statement, he said stepping down was in the best interest of Tennesseans while the review was being conducted. And I can see why. For those of you that don't know, Frank Strada was, you know, the state corrections commissioner. Now he was hired on in Tennessee specifically to oversee the death penalty. We already have one botched execution, which is Christa Pike. That just happened. But there was also another one earlier this year that we're gonna cover in a little bit. Now, I also found out that before he was hired in Tennessee, he was hired in Arizona basically to do the same thing. And they had a few botched executions. So I don't know. I and I'm gonna be quite honest with you guys. A lot of people wanna blame Christa Pike for what happened. But we also need to look at what's going on inside the doors here, not just her. Like, this is the second botched execution this year in Tennessee under the same commissioner, under the same doctor, by the way. So what is happening? But anyway, on October 4th, Governor Lee appointed former U.S. attorney Ed Stanton to lead the independent review. Now, Stanton is not new to this kind of assignment. He previously reviewed a 2022 Tennessee execution and found the state had not complied with its own lethal injection protocol. And this was not Tennessee's first failure this year. So back on May 21st, the state abandoned the execution of Tony Carruthers. Now, he was convicted of a 1994 triple murder in Memphis after the execution team spent over an hour. Unable to establish a backup IV line, Governor Lee granted Tony a one year repry. In July, more than 40 medical professionals signed a letter urging the governor to pause all executions in the state. But that was back in July, and we are now in October. Two field executions, five months apart, same problem at the center of both, which is getting the drugs into a vein. What is happening? Now, on October 2nd, Christa's attorney said that she was unconscious and the doctors were working to clear the pentobarbital from her system. Her arms, they said, were swollen, burned, and blistered. Then on October 6th, which is yesterday, as of this recording, came the statement no one expected. Quote, against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious speaking and continues to receive critical medical care. What? Now I'm gonna be honest. I have been following this case for a while. Okay. I I heard about this case years ago, but I did not expect that. I honestly did not. I I don't even know what to say. I'm just speechless at this still. Now, her attorneys described severe damage to her arms and said that despite it, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the hospital bed. They called her recovery, quote, medically unprecedented. Her prognosis, they said, remains unclear, and at a minimum, they expect a long recovery. Now they also renewed their call for Governor Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole and made that call again at today's news conference. For context, Christa's attorneys had filed a clemency petition before September 30th, which was her execution date. And according to the Associated Press, the governor denied it last week. And on the October 1st request was a renewed ask as of my cutoff being now, the governor's office had not responded. Now, one more detail that tells you how strange this territory is. Until today, her attorney said they still have not been allowed to visit Christa themselves in the hospital. A person holding her power of attorney has seen her and has been directing her medical care. But the judge's order this afternoon changes that, and her lawyers now get the same hospital access they had during her incarceration on at least two hours' notice. And then there's today, October 7th. This morning at noon Eastern, Christa's attorneys are in Davidson County Chancery Court. And basically, before the court, they went there for a status conference on their emergency motion. Now that motion, filed October 2nd. Basically asked the court to order the state to preserve every piece of evidence from September 30th, from the needles and syringes all the way to the trash can. Now, the motion alleges at least seven needles were used, one being bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed. What? I'm sorry. But how? Just how? I don't understand that I've had blood work. I have two kids. I've had blood work so many times throughout my life. Never had a bent needle. Never. And I've been dehydrated. There was a lot of claims and a lot of rumors saying, she was dehydrated. She didn't eat, all this other stuff. It was proven and it was confirmed that she did eat and she did drink before her execution. So she was not dehydrated during her execution. And that is from her legal team. That is also from witnesses that were at the facility. One needle that's been at a 90 degree angle when it was removed? Ow. That that is just insane to me. That's just insane. But anyway, now they also want to look at the drug lot numbers, the surveillance footage, the training and employment records of the IV team, and all written and electronic communications about the protocol and about the decision to call for emergency medical care. Now the motion accuses the Department of Correction of quote deliberate interference and of subjecting Christa to cruel and unusual punishment, which is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. But that is still ongoing. And the court granted it at around 12:20 this afternoon, Nashville time, the courts ordered the state to preserve it all. The medical equipment, the surveillance footage, witness accounts, handwritten notes, even encrypted communications. Basically she stated it needs to be maintained, adding that the state had already said it had no problem doing so. She also ordered that Christa's attorneys get the same level of access to her in the hospital that they had during her incarceration. At least two hours' notice granted through a prison warden and subject to hospital visitation rules. Then right after the hearing her attorneys held a news conference outside the courthouse. And then I was kind of listening to this one back and forth, but just to give you guys a little bit of insight, attorney Randy said that on Monday, two days ago, they were told Christa was actually brain dead. A day later, she was awake and talking. I just can't this case gets crazier by the minute, I swear. Her first words he said were quote, Where am I and who are you? She has a lot of cognitive confusion, he said. Moments where she seemed to space out. She knows the state tried to execute her. And Randy said she is angry and confused. And she has asked about her legal team and about the victim's family. Now her condition, as her attorneys described it today, a blood clot in her arm. She also has pneumonia. She cannot swallow, so she hasn't eaten. She can't move her arms and both arms remain tremendously swollen because of what happened. Now, the attorney described her hands as quote, like if you blew up a surgical glove, which I can't even imagine. And she is still shackled, one hand and both feet, despite medical staff asking that at least the hand restraint be removed. But of course. The line to the cameras quote, we have to ask how much suffering is enough per her attorney. Now, one more medical update that was reported today. Christa has reportedly been taken off the ventilator. She's still in the ICU, conscious and speaking, but nowhere near out of danger. Dr. Joel Zivod, a medical expert consulting for her legal team, said her prognosis and her progress bodies well for recovery, but cautioned that she That she is in no way free of severe risk and that serious complications can still occur even with good care. So, where does this go? The honest answer is no one knows. The independent review led by Ed Stanton is just getting started. The preserved evidence will shape whatever lawsuit comes next, and the governor has a renewed commutation request sitting on his desk. And the question underneath all of it. Whether the state of Tennessee will ever try to execute Christa Pike again has no precedent to answer it because this has never happened before. Now, legally, the ground is uncharted. Tennessee's protocol allows a backup injection if the inmate is still alive. And that backup was used. But as CNN reported, there is no protocol for what happens when the second injection doesn't work either. The death warrant for September 30th has expired. A new execution date would have to be sought and set. And when the judge asked today whether the state would ever seek one, the state's lawyer said he couldn't answer because that decision belongs to this Tennessee Supreme Court. Now, Christa's attorney told the court, the state has made no promises that Miss Pike will not be subject to further execution. Any attempt to reschedule would now run straight into the pending litigation, the independent review, and the preserved evidence from that night. And there's a constitutional argument taking shape. Now, the Vanderbilt Law Professor Christopher S. told WSMV that after what happened on September 30th, Christa's lawyers now have a strong argument that a second lethal injection attempt would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. it is just insane. There's a lot going on here and it's just gonna get more crazy, I feel like. But I had to give you guys what I had. But before I close, I wanna go back to where this started. Colleen Slemmer was 19. She volunteered with the Special Olympics and she helped kids with disabilities. She loved computers and wanted a career in technology. She went to Job Corps to build one and she was there for a matter of weeks. Her mother, May Martinez, was at Riverbend on September 30th, the day of Christa's execution. She had waited 30 years. She told People Magazine before that night that Christa had never apologized for killing her daughter and that she wanted to finally see justice. And today, for the first time since Christa woke up, May Martinez spoke publicly in an interview with Knoxville's WBIR. She said she had a feeling Christa would survive that night. And that she doesn't believe the state will try to execute her again. When they asked what she would want to happen next, she said, quote, it doesn't matter what I think. They're going to do what they're going to do. 30 years of waiting, and that's where it lands. Whatever the courts decide about what happened in that death chamber, whatever the review finds, whatever the governor does, none of it returns, Colleen Slemmer That is the fixed point in the story and everything else is still moving. Alright, guys, so that is it for my bonus episode of Troopers Crime Desk. You are front row seat to true crime. Regular episodes will return next week. And I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode. I feel like it needed to happen because there is so much misinformation out there, but we needed to get all the information out there. There's been a lot of people asking me questions, blowing up my phone, like, what do you think is gonna happen, this and that? It doesn't matter what my opinion is, to be honest with you. Everyone is gonna have their own opinion. From the death penalty being legal to illegal and you know what they should do to her next. The facts of the case is that none of it is going to bring back Colleen Slemmer, unfortunately, who is our victim in this case. And if you guys want to know the full details about this case, refer back to the part one episode. Which is the Knoxville murder, which explains in full detail from beginning to end the murder of Colleen Slemmer and Christa Pike's sentencing and moving on. But thank you so much for joining me for another True Crime episode. I'm your host, Trooper, with Trooper's Crime Desk, and thank you so much for joining me. Take care of each other.