Christa Pike: The Execution That Did Not Go as Planned

On September 30, 2026, Christa Pike was taken into Tennessee’s execution chamber.
Two doses of lethal-injection drugs were administered.
But Pike survived.

After more than three decades on death row, her execution was carried out at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The procedure, however, did not unfold as officials had expected.
Despite the administration of two doses, Pike remained alive.
She was eventually taken from the prison and transported for emergency medical treatment.
Tennessee officials later announced a review of the failed execution attempt.
Governor Bill Lee subsequently suspended the state’s remaining executions scheduled for 2026.

But the story did not begin in 2026.

It began in Knoxville in January 1995.
At the time, 18-year-old Christa Pike and other Job Corps students became involved in the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Pike was later convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
She was sentenced to death, and Tennessee’s appellate courts ultimately upheld her convictions and death sentence.

For decades, Pike remained on Tennessee’s death row as her case moved through the legal system.
Then, on September 30, 2026, the state attempted to carry out the sentence.
Instead, the execution became an extraordinary medical and legal event.
This documentary follows the story from the events of 1995 through Pike’s trial, decades on death row, and the failed execution attempt in 2026.
It is the story of Christa Pike, Colleen Slemmer, and an execution that did not end as expected.