NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after surviving two doses of a lethal injection last week during Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute her, her attorneys said on Tuesday.
Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug, The New York Times reported. That was confirmed by Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center, according to the newspaper.
She has been hospitalized since the execution attempt on Sept. 30, after she was still breathing after two doses of pentobarbital.
Pike was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care,” attorneys Randy Spivey, Kelly Gleason, Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said in a joint email, The Tennessean reported. “Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Pike was scheduled to be executed for the 1995 torture and killing of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, according to the newspaper.
Breaking News: Christa Pike, whose execution in Tennessee was botched last week, is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said. https://t.co/7jZxuHnTFm
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 6, 2026
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, was at the prison when the execution failed, The Tennessean reported.
A court hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, according to the newspaper. Pike’s attorneys are seeking a court order to force the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve physical, written, and electronic evidence
“The U.S. Supreme Court has not decided whether a second execution attempt would violate the Constitution since 1947,” Maher told USA Today. “These are questions that have never needed to be asked before and no one knows the answers.”
In 1947, the nation’s highest court ruled on the case of Willie Francis, a 17-year-old Black from Louisiana convicted of murder for a crime he committed at age 16, according to the newspaper.
His first execution inside the local parish jail in St. Martinville, was halted when the portable electric chair failed to deliver enough current, USA Today reported.
The execution was aborted, and an appeal was filed to the Supreme Court, according to the newspaper. Francis spent a year on death row before the Supreme Court ruled a second execution attempt could proceed, writing that “accidents happen for which no man is to blame.”
Francis was successfully executed in the electric chair on May 9, 1947, USA Today reported.
Political leaders in Tennessee are now considering alternative ways to execute inmates after the Pike incident, People reported.
[ Christa Pike’s arms were swollen, burned and blistered after failed execution, attorney says ]
“If it’s lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn told The Associated Press on Monday.
“We want to broaden it, include more methods.” Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton told the news organization. “What those are as of today, I’m not sure. But I don’t think there’s any method that’s off the table at this point.”
After the failed attempts, Pike was transferred to a hospital where she was unconscious and placed on a ventilator, CNN reported. She received lifesaving medical care, according to the cable news outlet.
“We are incredibly grateful to the first responders and the medical team at the hospital who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her,” the attorneys said in their statement. “We also want to thank thousands from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa.”
Pike’s failed execution led to the resignation of Tennessee’s commissioner of the Department of Correction, and Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review of what went wrong.
Pike had been convicted and sentenced to death after she and two teen accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat Slemmer, a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student from Orange Park, Florida, on Jan. 12, 1995, WBIR reported. Pike was 18 at the time.
Pike was to become the 19th woman executed in the U.S. over the past 50 years; she was the only female on Tennessee’s death row and had been there for three decades, according to USA Today.
Tennessee last executed a woman in 1819. According to data compiled by the U.S. Supreme Court, an unnamed Black female was hanged for murder.
On a rainy night in eastern Tennessee in January 1995, Pike and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, invited Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus on the pretense of smoking marijuana.
According to court filings, Pike believed that Slemmer was attempting to “steal” her boyfriend.
Investigators said that Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer for at least 30 minutes. Slemmer suffered repeated injuries, including wounds from a meat cleaver and another sharp object, WBIR reported. A pentagram was also carved into her chest, according to an autopsy and testimony presented in the case.
Pike delivered the final blow with a piece of asphalt, prosecutors said.
A third person, Shadolla Peterson, 18, was arrested but was given probation after agreeing to testify against Pike and Shipp, according to The Tennessean.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. Shipp was convicted of the same charge but avoided the death penalty because he was a minor at the time of the murder, the newspaper reported. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Shipp’s request for parole was denied in October 2025, WBIR reported. He is eligible for another hearing in October 2031, according to the television station.
Shipp remains incarcerated in the Northwest Correctional Complex in Lake County, three hours west of Nashville, The Tennessean reported.
Martinez told WBIR she “knew all along” Pike would not die, adding that she does not believe the state will attempt a second execution.
“It doesn’t matter what I think, they’re going to do what they’re going to do,” she told the television station.
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