Last updated October 11, 2026. This summary is based on press reports and may change as new information emerges.
Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prosecutors said the killing took place on January 12, 1995, when Pike was 18 [1][2][4].
Tennessee scheduled her execution for September 30, 2026. She was the only woman on the state's death row, and it would have been the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years [1]. Governor Bill Lee said he would not intervene [1]. An appeals court halted the execution about an hour before it was due, and the US Supreme Court lifted that stay [3][4].
According to her lawyers' court filings, two doses of pentobarbital were administered and neither killed her [2][4]. The Associated Press reported that she could be heard snoring loudly after the second dose [4]. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital [4]. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed every step of its protocol [3][4]. Governor Lee called the events "deeply disturbing," ordered a review, and postponed the state's only other execution scheduled for 2026 [2][4].
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described Pike's experience as "singular and unparalleled" [4]. Colleen Slemmer's mother told NBC News that "it was a mess" [4].
At a court hearing in Nashville on October 7, Pike's attorney said she had regained consciousness roughly six days after the attempt and was speaking only to a limited extent [2].
- [1] WSMV, September 28, 2026
- [2] ITV News, October 8, 2026
- [3] The New Daily, October 1, 2026
- [4] Associated Press, via Irish Examiner, October 1, 2026
