Christa Pike has been released from hospital, 10 days after surviving two execution attempts. The 50-year-old was discharged and returned to prison, where she will continue receiving medical treatment.
Survived two lethal injections
On September 30, two doses of pentobarbital were administered during her scheduled execution, which would have made her the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years. Instead, she became the first person ever to survive two lethal injections.
As Pike remained alive with a heartbeat, she was heard snoring and gurgling on the chamber’s microphone shortly after the initial dose and a backup failed. She was transported to a hospital in Nashville, where staff worked to save her life.
Recovery and legal implications
Having been placed on a ventilator, she was unconscious but later woke up and began speaking, much to the shock of doctors and legal experts. Her attorney has now given a fresh update on Pike’s condition, confirming her discharge and return to prison.
While her recovery will be closely monitored, her legal team says it may take months to assess possible long-term cognitive effects. Meanwhile, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has paused all executions this year as the Tennessee capital punishment system faces potential serious repercussions.
Background of the case
Pike has spent the last 30 years behind bars after she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Aged 18 at the time, Pike met Slemmer at a job training camp for low-income young people.
She and Shipp, 17, lured Slemmer to the woods, where she was bludgeoned to death, with court documents reporting that Pike believed Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend. As Slemmer attempted to flee, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office wrote at the time, Pike ‘sliced her stomach with a box cutter’.
Despite desperately pleading for her life, Slemmer was repeatedly kicked in the face and had her throat cut. Pike finally smashed the teen on the head with a rock, later boasting about her crime to her friend. Slemmer’s body had been so badly beaten that, when she was discovered the following day, a Tennessee Grounds Department employee mistook it for that of an animal.
Pike ultimately confessed and was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996, while Shipp was also convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was given a life sentence.
Reaction from victim's family
Speaking after Pike’s botched execution, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, called it ‘a mess’. Martinez had been in the witness room with her husband, Raul Martinez Jr., after which she told People: ‘If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen.’
