Christa Pike Deserves Prison — But Did Tennessee Go Too Far?

Let me start here because I don't want anybody getting this twisted: Christa Pike committed a horrific crime.

In 1995, an 18-year-old Pike participated in the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, another student at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to Tennessee court records, Pike had told another student the day before the murder that she intended to kill Slemmer. The following night, Slemmer left the Job Corps campus with Pike, Pike's boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and Shadolla Peterson. Slemmer never came back.

Court records say Slemmer was beaten and cut, suffered defensive wounds, and begged for the attack to stop. A pentagram was carved into her chest, and she ultimately died from blunt-force injuries to her head. Pike later admitted responsibility and reportedly showed another student a piece of Slemmer's skull that she had taken from the scene. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy and sentenced to death.

Colleen was 19 years old.

Whatever conversation we have about what happened to Pike three decades later should never erase the young woman whose life was taken.

She survived her own execution.

On September 30, 2026, Tennessee attempted to execute the now-50-year-old Pike using pentobarbital. It didn't work.

According to media witnesses and court filings from Pike's attorneys, the state administered two rounds of the drug. Pike remained alive. Tennessee's protocol provides for a second set of syringes if the prisoner remains alive after the first dose, but reporting indicates it does not specify another execution procedure after the second.

Pike reportedly remained conscious for part of the procedure. At one point, witnesses said she complained about her arm, saying it felt like it was "about to burst open."

"I cannot emphasize enough how much of whatever just happened happened behind a closed curtain." - Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale

Witnesses said Pike could still be heard breathing and snoring behind those curtains. WBIR reporter John North described what he witnessed by saying, "It appeared this did not go as it was supposed to go."

Pike was eventually transported to a hospital. On October 1, her attorneys said she was alive but in critical condition and receiving lifesaving medical treatment. Gov. Bill Lee halted Tennessee's remaining execution scheduled for 2026 and ordered a third-party investigation into what happened. The Tennessee Department of Correction said officials followed the state's established execution protocol.

Now, those are the reported facts. Here's where my opinion begins.

Christa Pike deserves life in prison.

She took somebody's daughter away. She took away Colleen Slemmer's entire future. Prison should have been where Pike spent the rest of her natural life.

But what she did not deserve was for the State of Tennessee to play God.

I believe the death penalty is outdated and barbarous as fuck.

And after hearing what happened inside that execution chamber, my biggest question is: Why didn't somebody STOP?

If you've already administered enough drugs that were supposed to kill somebody and they're still conscious, still breathing, still able to tell you something doesn't feel right - clearly, SOMETHING IS WRONG.

So why continue? Why administer the second round? At what point does carrying out a punishment become inflicting suffering?

You don't have to like Christa Pike to ask that question. You don't have to forgive her. You don't have to forget Colleen. And you damn sure don't have to pretend that what Pike did at 18 wasn't horrific.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Christa Pike can be responsible for a brutal murder AND the government can still be held accountable for how it treats a human being in its custody.

Justice should not require us to become comfortable with cruelty.

And ladies, before I go, I need to say something else because the circumstances surrounding this case should be a cautionary tale too.

If that man is smiling in your face, her face AND they face - LEAVE HIM ALONE.

No man is worth fighting another woman over. No man is worth destroying another woman's life over. And he damn sure isn't worth throwing away your own freedom, your future or your life.

Whatever jealousy, anger and relationship drama existed between these teenagers in 1995 became permanent.

Colleen Slemmer lost her life. Christa Pike lost her freedom at 18 and has spent more than 30 years under a death sentence.

There was no winner.