Christa Pike murdered her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime, while Slemmer was 19. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of killing Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Pike and Shipp killed Slemmer through a fatal stabbing and beating. The two were classmates at a job training facility in Knoxville. Pike was the only person sentenced to death for the murder. Pike received the death penalty for the same killing. Pike has not denied committing the murder.
Shipp was 17 when the crime took place and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Both were convicted for their roles in Slemmer’s death, according to Al Jazeera . In her clemency petition, she said she had initially intended to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her during a frenzied attack. Pike said she could not “put the brakes on” during the incident, according to Al Jazeera.
Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Wednesday, but the lethal injection attempt did not result in her death. Pike’s mental health became a key issue in her death penalty case.
She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder after the murder, according to Al Jazeera. Prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, according to court filings cited by Al Jazeera. Her lawyers later said she had been taken from the prison in an ambulance to a hospital.
