31 Years on Death Row — Christa Pike Survives Tennessee’s Attempted Execution

After more than three decades on death row, Christa Pike unexpectedly survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her.
The failed execution has now become one of the most unusual death-penalty cases in the state’s modern history.
Pike remains hospitalized following the execution attempt, according to her attorneys.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
According to the case record, Slemmer was taken to an abandoned steam plant after being told the meeting was intended to make peace.
The encounter ended in a brutal killing that shocked the community.
Prosecutors said Slemmer was beaten and attacked before she died.
A satanic symbol was also reportedly carved into the victim’s body.

Pike confessed to the killing shortly after her arrest, according to accounts of the case.
She was later convicted and sentenced to death in Tennessee.
For more than 30 years, she remained on death row as appeals and legal proceedings continued.

Then came the execution attempt.
Tennessee administered lethal injection drugs, but Pike survived and was taken to a hospital.
Her attorneys have since raised questions about the procedure and sought further legal action.
The state has also ordered a review of what happened during the failed execution.

The case now carries two separate but deeply connected stories: the brutal 1995 murder that sent Pike to death row and the extraordinary execution attempt that failed decades later.
For Slemmer’s family, the original loss remains at the center of the case.
For Pike, the failed execution has opened a new and unexpected chapter in a legal battle that has lasted more than 30 years.