Christa Pike Was Set to Make Tennessee History — Then Her Execution Took an Unexpected Turn

Christa Pike’s scheduled execution was never going to be an ordinary moment in Tennessee history.

At 50 years old, Pike was set to become the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.

Historical records indicate Tennessee had not executed a woman since the early 1800s. Pike also would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in the modern death penalty era.

Pike had spent nearly three decades on death row for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

She was only 18 when the crime occurred and 20 when she received her death sentence in 1996.

Her execution was scheduled for September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution in Nashville.

But the historic milestone never happened.

A federal appeals court first issued a last-minute stay. The U.S. Supreme Court later cleared Tennessee to proceed, and officials eventually administered two doses of pentobarbital.

Pike remained alive.

She was transported from Riverbend by ambulance to a hospital, where her attorneys said she remained in critical condition and was receiving lifesaving care.

My take: September 30 was expected to become a historic date in Tennessee’s death penalty history. Instead, the failed execution attempt created a very different historical moment, leaving Pike alive and the state examining what went wrong.