Christa Pike speaks after failed execution
The gist
Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, released her first statement since surviving a lethal injection attempt.
Her account raises questions about the state's execution protocol and what happens to her sentence next.
How it unfolded
- 1995Pike, then 18, and others lured 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer into woods in Knoxville, Tenn., where she was slashed with a box cutter and beaten; prosecutors said it was in a jealous rage.
- Mar 30, 1996A jury convicted Pike of the 1995 murder, and she was sentenced to death in Knoxville, Tenn.
- Sep 30, 2026Tennessee attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville; she received two doses of pentobarbital and survived, with arms swollen, burned and blistered, and was taken to a hospital.