Facts
- Christa Pike, 50, said she is in constant pain in her first public statement since a failed attempt to execute her in Tennessee, the Associated Press reported on October 30, 2026, via PBS NewsHour. Her statement was dictated to her legal team from the prison infirmary.
- Pike was set to be executed on September 30 for the 1995 stabbing death of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time. She survived two doses of pentobarbital and was unconscious and on a ventilator for the first few days of her hospitalization. She has since been moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
- Medical and lethal injection experts are focusing on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream, the AP reported. Her lawyers say the failed injection left her arms burned and blistered.
- Gov. Bill Lee called for an investigation and postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled this year. The state’s prison chief resigned.
- Pike’s lawyers have urged the governor to reduce her sentence to life imprisonment. He has not granted the request. Lee told reporters: ‘I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.’
- The AP article did not report any statement from Slemmer’s family.
Quotes
Christa Pike, in her statement: “There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain.” She added: “I don’t know why I survived that night.”
Christa Pike blamed the failure on “incompetence.”
Gov. Bill Lee told reporters: “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”
Source Read the Associated Press report on PBS NewsHour here.
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