Christa Pike is currently making headlines for all the wrong reasons. For the uninitiated, Christa had been accused of luring her victim, Colleen Slemmer, to a remote area of the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and their friend Shadolla Peterson. Pike and Tadaryl murdered Colleen with a box cutter. Now, after Pike’s failed execution, Colleen’s mother, May Martinez, shared that she felt she failed her daughter.
Colleen Slemmer’s mom, May Martinez, says she felt she had failed her daughter after Christa Pike’s failed execution
According to reports, Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026. Christa was 18 when she killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Christa, who is now 50, has spent more than three decades behind bars for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Now, after her failed execution, Colleen’s mom, May Martinez, expressed her feelings about delayed justice. Speaking to PEOPLE, May said:
“The whole thing yesterday was supposed to be my justice, but I guess I failed my daughter.”
May revealed that she and her husband, Raul, spent 12 hours at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution waiting to see Christa Pike be executed for murdering her daughter, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in 1995. The couple arrived at 8:30 a.m. and did not leave the viewing room until 8 p.m., after the second failed attempt to administer a lethal injection to Pike. According to Christa’s attorneys, Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, but had not lost consciousness. Reacting to her failed execution, May said:
“If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen and let her feel the pain.”
Pike and her then-boyfriend murdered Colleen with a box cutter on January 12, 1995. After Colleen was dead, a pentagram was carved into her chest, and a piece of her skull was removed. A year before her murder in 1994, 19-year-old Colleen moved to Tennessee to participate in a Job Corps program because of her interest in computer science.
More about Christa Pike
Christa Pike was moved to an undisclosed hospital after her failed execution. Her lawyers told TMZ that she was critically ill. They clarified that Pike was not in a coma. As of October 1, 2026, Pike was still unconscious and on a ventilator. She was also intubated. According to Pike’s lawyers, both of her arms were badly injured. They described them as ‘swollen, burned and blistered’.
Pike’s lawyers shared that the medical staff struggled to find a suitable vein for the IV. It is worth mentioning that before Christa’s attempted execution, her attorneys challenged Tennessee’s lethal injection process and asked that, if the state proceeded with execution, she be hanged. Her legal team cited her blood disorder, difficulties with accessing her veins, and her history of trauma, arguing that lethal injection could cause unnecessary suffering.
According to Pike’s legal team, the IV team used at least seven needles in an effort to establish access, and one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed from her body. On October 2, 2026, Pike’s attorneys filed the emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court, seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) to preserve all evidence related to the failed execution attempt.
As Christa’s attempted execution went wrong, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee stopped all executions in the state for the rest of 2026. He also ordered an independent investigation to find out exactly what went wrong during Pike’s execution attempt. For those unaware, Christa was supposed to become the first woman Tennessee had executed in more than 200 years.
What are your thoughts on Christa Pike’s failed execution? Let us know.
Pic credit: Reuters, Knoxville News Sentinel
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