Tennessee fails to execute Christa Pike after two lethal injection attempts

The US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Tennessee could proceed with Pike's execution by lethal injection for murdering teenager Colleen Slemmer three decades ago.

Pike, 50, whose clemency petition highlighting childhood trauma and sexual abuse was denied by Governor Bill Lee on Monday, would also be the only person in the modern era of US capital punishment to be executed in Tennessee for a crime committed as a teenager.

Before her execution, she raised multiple medical concerns as to why death by injection would be considered torture for her, including small veins and a thrombocytosis diagnosis, a bone marrow disorder characterized by an overproduction of blood platelets. Medical experts on the case argued that her condition would cause her to essentially drown in her own blood during the execution, Nashville’s WTVF reported.

In an order decided by its 6-3 conservative majority, the Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution that was granted by a three-judge panel of the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals one hour before Pike had been scheduled to be put to death.

The appellate panel voted 2-1 to order a "short stay" to allow time to weigh Pike's claim that evidence of her childhood sexual abuse was not adequately considered during her sentencing.

If the state were to run out of time to conduct the execution, it would need to obtain a new warrant from the Tennessee Supreme Court, according to Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Notably, this is the second failed execution attempt in the state of Tennessee in 2026.

“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy,” Pike's lawyers said in a statement released after the execution attempt.

Pike was 18 in January 1995 when she, a 17-year-old boyfriend, and a third companion lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at their Knoxville Job Corps vocational center, into a wooded area where they tortured and killed her.

The grisly nature of the slaying, which involved the perpetrators carving the shape of a pentagram in the victim's chest and taking a chunk of her skull as a souvenir of the carnage, drew intense media coverage at the time.

Trial testimony indicated that Pike viewed Slemmer as a rival for the affections of her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.

Pike and Shipp were both convicted of first-degree murder. Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Their co-defendant, Shadolla Peterson, who was 18 at the time of the murder and acted as a lookout for the other two, testified for the prosecution and received probation.

Currently the only woman on Tennessee's death row, Pike was also convicted in August 2001 of attempted first-degree murder in an assault on another inmate, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Moreover, they pointed to evidence that Pike's mother drank heavily during pregnancy, contributing to faulty brain development that made it difficult for their client to control her impulses as a young person.

"The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists," her lawyers wrote in response to Lee's denial of clemency. "Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has spoken out in support of the execution.