Christa Pike was supposed to be dead by now. She’s set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Eve Martin was the last to die, hanged in 1820 after being found guilty of being an accessory to murder. 

Pike’s crime was brutal: In 1995, she lured a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, into a wooded area near the University of Tennessee, where she tortured her and bashed her head in with a rock. She kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull. Pike believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, at the time. 

Shipp also participated in the murder, carving a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest. Another friend, Shadolla Peterson, served as a lookout during the assault. Peterson became a witness for the prosecution, served a year in jail while awaiting trial, and eventually received six years’ probation after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact. Shipp was given a life sentence with parole; he’s still in prison. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996. 

Pike was supposed to be dead Wednesday morning, but an 11th-hour stay was issued. Later that evening, the order to proceed with the execution was given, but it was a circus. Pike wouldn’t die, and after two lethal injection attempts, she was rushed to the hospital. Gov. Bill Lee declared that there was one more scheduled execution this year, but that is now on hold, ending all executions for 2026 (via NBC News):

Tennessee failed to execute the lone woman on its death row as planned Wednesday, even after injecting her with a lethal drug, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.

Attorneys for Christa Pike said Wednesday night that she was being treated at a hospital, but they did not know her condition. A spokesperson for the Department of Correction did not answer an emailed question whether she was alive but said she was “transported to an off-site medical facility.”

Pike, 50, is the state’s only woman on death row. She was convicted of murdering a classmate in 1995, when she was 18 years old, and sentenced to death.

In a news conference Wednesday night, journalists who witnessed the attempted execution described snoring and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her. At times, the curtain was closed and journalists could only hear sounds.

In a federal court filing seeking to halt her execution, Pike’s lawyers said witnesses saw executioners injecting “both syringes of lethal injection chemicals” but that Pike remained alive.

They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice,” according to the lawyers.

Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, said in a statement that he was ordering “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” He added that the last remaining execution for this year will not be carried out as planned.

In a phone interview with NBC News early Thursday morning, May Martinez, the mother of victim Colleen Slemmer, described the execution attempt.

“It was a mess,” she said.

Ms. Martinez is furious with authorities for botching this execution, which has led Gov. Bill Lee to suspend all executions for 2026. Witnesses said nothing about the execution seemed normal. Tori Gessner, a reporter for WKRN Nashville, was inside the chamber and added, “I’ve witnessed, I believe, 5 executions in Tennessee. Nothing about today was normal, typical at all.”

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“The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” said Pike.

Authorities said that all protocols for lethal injection were followed:

Gessner said that at 7:34 p.m. Pike was heard saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” Pike then talked about that spot on her arm and asked, “Does this happen like that?” Gessner said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said the state “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office” and that “the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.”

It’s the second time an execution did not go as planned in Tennessee this year. Tony Carruthers, convicted in three 1994 killings, was granted a one-year reprieve after executioners in May couldn’t find a vein for a backup IV.

“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” Pike’s attorneys said in a statement.

The execution warrant for Pike was set to expire at midnight local time (1 a.m. ET Thursday). The Department of Correction did not immediately say if they would attempt another execution, or when.

Yet, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Pike is a vicious killer who deserved to be executed. She isn’t Little Debbie, folks. She is a convicted murderer, and her punishment was just. It still is. She deserves the death penalty.