They gave Christa Pike two doses, but apparently she is still breathing.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2026/09/30/christa-pike-death-penalty-execution-live-updates--live/91994490007/

Now she is receiving medical care to perhaps save her life. Prison officials refused to speak to the press. Told them they had less than an hour to leave the prison.

If she lives through this somehow, I sure don't agree with repeating the procedure.

Let her live the rest of her life in prison.

Hell, Lindsay Clancy did worse and she will never spend a day in jail. You can mark it.

Quote:

---

Pike's defense has argued she suffered documented sexual abuse and neglect as a child, including rape at ages 11 and 17, and had severe mental illness, including bipolar disorder and PTSD

---

Do I believe she should be jailed for life? Yes I do, just as I believe Clancy should be jailed for life. But. now that she has been executed and has apparently survived, that should be it, and she should return to jail for life.

Lawyers should be working on legally changing her name to Christa Rasputin.

Maybe. She was 18 at the time of the crime. I'd be in favor of increasing the age to 25 (human brain not fully formed until then).

As of 6am this morning, Pike's attorney's do not know her condition and Tennessee isn't talking except to say that they followed the protocol exactly.

Horrific.

Redbrickbear said:

---

El Oso said:

---

Maybe. She was 18 at the time of the crime. I'd be in favor of increasing the age to 25 (human brain not fully formed until then).

---

Look....we were all 18 once...we knew what is right and what is wrong.

And Human brain development is a continuous, lifelong process of structural & functional change that begins in the earliest stage of life and extends well into adulthood.

No matter if we are still developing at 18 or in decline at age 98....we all know its wrong to torture-murder someone for half and hour in a old abandoned steam plant in Knoxville Tennessee

Bashing another girls brains out and then carry around a piece of her skull as a trophy and show it off to other people.

This is not a "development" issue.

[While living at the Job Corps training campus, Pike became convinced that fellow student Colleen Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Along with her friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee campus.

On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and went to the woods, where Slemmer was told they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to court testimony, for the next 30 minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed. Shipp used a box cutter to carve a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive.

Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer's skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull. Pike began to show off the piece of skull around the school, and the three were arrested within 36 hours. The log book showed that Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer left together, and only three returned. Detectives found the piece of skull in Pike's jacket pocket. Soon after her arrest, Pike waived her Miranda rights and confessed to the police how she had participated in Slemmer's killing]

---

Yea, I read this summary yesterday and she is or at least was a sick individual and should have been executed before she turned 19. Now that she is 50 and was allowed to live another 32 years and has been executed, without success, basically she was tortured herself, I just don't see going through it again.

Lindsay Clansey deserves the same fate, even more so, but she is treated like a feminist hero and will never spend a day in jail.

Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine who told the BBC he had been retained by Pike's legal team as a medical expert, said she probably never achieved a sufficient blood level of pentobarbital to cause apnoea and cardiovascular failure. In his emailed comments to the BBC, Zivot said: "It's very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury."

There is nothing on any website that confirms anything about her condition. This is simply someone on her legal team answering a reporter's unidentified question(s) which appears to be why didn't she die after being injected.

El Oso said:

---

Maybe. She was 18 at the time of the crime. I'd be in favor of increasing the age to 25 (human brain not fully formed until then).

As of 6am this morning, Pike's attorney's do not know her condition and Tennessee isn't talking except to say that they followed the protocol exactly.

---

I doubt you have read the case file. Read it and report back.

However, your argument is inherently illogical. You're arguing about punishment types using an age standard.

You're arguing essentially people under 25 should not be held accountable for their crimes. The punishment is not germane.

Mitch Blood Green said:

---

Horrific.

---

Agreed. It was one of the most horrific crimes about which I have read. And to make matters worse, there was no real motive other than Pike being a bully.

Of course, all of these fine upstanding folks were part of taxpayer-funded JobCorps, which had a terrible reputation of allowing anyone in and not doing background checks.

Harrison Bergeron said:

---

Mitch Blood Green said:

---

Horrific.

---

Agreed. It was one of the most horrific crimes about which I have read. And to make matters worse, there was no real motive other than Pike being a bully.

Of course, all of these fine upstanding folks were part of taxpayer-funded JobCorps, which had a terrible reputation of allowing anyone in and not doing background checks.

---

Would ya?

The inmate was Christa Pike, and her attorneys requested an all-female execution team, citing her documented history of sexual abuse by men and her post-traumatic stress disorder.

Osodecentx said:

---

The inmate was Christa Pike, and her attorneys requested an all-female execution team, citing her documented history of sexual abuse by men and her post-traumatic stress disorder.

---

Too bad it did not cite her second attempted murder and escape attempt ... of course a bunch of rhegarded women cannot do anything right.

Mothra said:

---

Ridiculous. Time to end the practice.

---

I agree.

Tempus Edax Rerum said:

---

Mothra said:

---

Ridiculous. Time to end the practice.

---

I agree.

---

There are cases for which the death penalty is appropriate

Osodecentx said:

---

Tempus Edax Rerum said:

---

Mothra said:

---

Ridiculous. Time to end the practice.

---

I agree.

---

There are cases for which the death penalty is appropriate

---

There are and this was one of them. Thirty-two years is too long of a time period to execute a person

Death penalty cases are automatically appealed. IMHO, they should get 10 years to exhaust the appeal process. And should be executed before year eleven begins.

I don't think anyone can convince me her case was being worked on for 32 years.

I can live without the state never killing anyone else. Especially Tennessee

Why didn't they just snuff her out with a pillow or something if she was still breathing after the drugs? Or just shoot her full of St. George Floyd brand Fentanyl? It was good enough to kill him.

El Oso said:

---

Maybe. She was 18 at the time of the crime. I'd be in favor of increasing the age to 25 (human brain not fully formed until then).

---

I wonder if you would feel the same if it was your daughter or wife that was butchered with a pentagram carved into her torso?

Kids will be kids, I guess.

LIB,MR BEARS said:

---

Osodecentx said:

---

Tempus Edax Rerum said:

---

Mothra said:

---

Ridiculous. Time to end the practice.

---

I agree.

---

There are cases for which the death penalty is appropriate

---

There are and this was one of them. Thirty-two years is too long of a time period to execute a person

Death penalty cases are automatically appealed. IMHO, they should get 10 years to exhaust the appeal process. And should be executed before year eleven begins.

I don't think anyone can convince me her case was being worked on for 32 years.

---

3 paragraphs
I agree with all 3

GrowlTowel said:

---

Why didn't they just snuff her out with a pillow or something if she was still breathing after the drugs? Or just shoot her full of St. George Floyd brand Fentanyl? It was good enough to kill him.

---

It is odd we resuscitate folks being executed.

She is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.

El Oso said:

---

She is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.

---

Wouldn't this solve the issue then?

El Oso said:

---

She is intubated, on a ventilator and unconscious, and that both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered. As of the night of Oct. 1, Pike was still in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion said.

---

I believe the death sentence is appropriate for special cases, such as murdering children, or torturing people to death and similar murders.

But this ended up being cruel and unusual punishment. If for any chance she recovers, which I seriously doubt happens, I don't believe they should try this again.

I also know she had another conviction while in prison 25 years ago for attempted
murder.

But, what happened was extreme. My guess is they will pull the ventilator within a few days and she will die.

I don't understand the appeal behind the death penalty. Could be mistaken, but:

I don't believe it has been proven to deter crime

It costs the state tons due to the appeals

Not as punitive as life in prison for a lot of people (In this case specifically she was calling her execution a 'happy day'

I don't fall squarly in the 'small government' camp, but even I don't like the idea of giving the government the power to kill its citizens

As a Christian, I believe none are past the point of redemption and the death penalty robs the chance of saving more souls.

It creates a system where many are complicit in the killing of another human being, which leads to situations like this one where companies don't want to sell these drugs for this purpose and end up giving expired or vague doses and the execution ends up botched.

Bestweekeverr said:

---

I don't understand the appeal behind the death penalty. Could be mistaken, but:

I don't believe it has been proven to deter crime

It costs the state tons due to the appeals

Not as punitive as life in prison for a lot of people (In this case specifically she was calling her execution a 'happy day'

I don't fall squarly in the 'small government' camp, but even I don't like the idea of giving the government the power to kill its citizens

As a Christian, I believe none are past the point of redemption and the death penalty robs the chance of saving more souls.

---

Some crimes are so heinous the death penalty is justified.

Osodecentx said:

---

Bestweekeverr said:

---

I don't understand the appeal behind the death penalty. Could be mistaken, but:

I don't believe it has been proven to deter crime

It costs the state tons due to the appeals

Not as punitive as life in prison for a lot of people (In this case specifically she was calling her execution a 'happy day'

I don't fall squarly in the 'small government' camp, but even I don't like the idea of giving the government the power to kill its citizens

As a Christian, I believe none are past the point of redemption and the death penalty robs the chance of saving more souls.

---

Some crimes are so heinous the death penalty is justified.

---

Jusified by what or by who? What if the criminal would prefer death than life in prison? You'd be rewarding them.

Bestweekeverr said:

---

Osodecentx said:

---

Bestweekeverr said:

---

I don't understand the appeal behind the death penalty. Could be mistaken, but:

I don't believe it has been proven to deter crime

It costs the state tons due to the appeals

Not as punitive as life in prison for a lot of people (In this case specifically she was calling her execution a 'happy day'

I don't fall squarly in the 'small government' camp, but even I don't like the idea of giving the government the power to kill its citizens

As a Christian, I believe none are past the point of redemption and the death penalty robs the chance of saving more souls.

---

Some crimes are so heinous the death penalty is justified.

---

Jusified by what or by who? What if the criminal would prefer death than life in prison? You'd be rewarding them.

---

By the laws of the criminal justice system