(The Center Square) – Convicted murderer Christa Pike is out of the hospital and back in prison 10 days after surviving an execution attempt, her attorneys said Saturday.
Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital in the execution room before she was taken to the hospital on Sept. 30. Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an investigation into what went wrong during the attempted execution and halted executions through 2026.
Pike remained unconscious until Tuesday, when she woke up, according to her attorneys. She is walking and eating a normal diet, they said previously.
"She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances," Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender said in a statement emailed to The Center Square. "She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery."
According to testimony and prosecutors, Pike was 18 in 1995 when she killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors say Pike and two accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat Slemmer. All were part of a Job Corps training program in Knoxville.
A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest. Investigators say Pike bragged of keeping a skull fragment as a “souvenir.”
She was also convicted of attempted murder in 2001 after trying to strangle another prisoner with a shoestring.
Pike's failed execution is the second in Tennessee this year. The Department of Correction's attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May was also unsuccessful. Lee issued a one-year reprieve from the death penalty for Carruthers, who was convicted of murder in 1996 for the deaths of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker.
Lee has yet to say if the state will attempt to execute Pike again. Lee leaves office in January.
Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who made $21,160 a month, or $253,920 annually, according to the Transparent Tennessee website, resigned last week. Strada was appointed by Lee, and his tenure began in January 2023. Strada led the department when the decision was made to use the single drug pentobarbital. Lee paused executions in 2022 to review the state's death penalty protocols and tasked Strada with investigating the methods.
