By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-07 20:07:02 | Updated at 2026-10-08 01:50:30
6 hours ago
Christa Pike. Tennessee Department of Corrections via AP
A Tennessee judge on Oct. 7 granted a request by Christa Pike’s legal team to preserve evidence in the state’s failed execution attempt on Sept. 30.
Attorneys for Pike, 50, argued in support of their motion to preserve evidence from the failed lethal injections, which left her unconscious and on a ventilator. Pike’s condition has since improved.
Pike was sentenced in 1996 for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was Pike’s classmate in a job-training program. She was later convicted in 2001 of attempted first-degree murder in the assault of another inmate.
Pike’s attorneys filed an emergency motion on Oct. 3 to preserve evidence.
Judge I’Ashea L. Myles of the Davidson County Chancery Court, who heard the case, noted that it was peculiar since there was no pending case and the request was not a temporary restraining order, because the attempted execution was already carried out.
The state argued that “there is no relief to grant” because the filings are pointed at an event that is “already passed,” referencing the failed execution.
Attorney Luke Ihnen of the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee argued on Pike’s behalf, asking the court to order that evidence be preserved, but did not request that it be turned over to Pike.
Had her execution been successful, she would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
The judge ruled that all physical and digital evidence be preserved, including waste and encrypted evidence. She warned the state that it should “ensure that you all take special care not to lose, misplace, [or] accidentally delete any information that may be pertinent to this litigation.”
Pike was in critical condition and received life-saving care after being given two doses of pentobarbital that did not end her life at a prison in Nashville.
Attorneys for Pike claim she was in the execution chamber without receiving medical treatment for an estimated 15–20 minutes, calling the event “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Medical experts said it was difficult to access Pike’s veins because she suffers from a blood condition.
Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, ordered that all executions be halted in the state until at least the end of the year.
“The people of Tennessee have determined that capital punishment is the appropriate punishment for the most heinous of crimes,” Lee told reporters in Nashville on Oct. 1.
Ihnen noted that Pike was recently conscious, which was announced on Oct. 6, following the attempted execution. He hinted that a lawsuit might be filed, but that his client was still too unwell to decide.
Announcing her change in status, attorneys for Pike called her recovery “medically unprecedented,” saying that despite “severe damage” to her arms, she is still handcuffed and “shackled to the bed.”
Ihnen asked the court that Pike’s shackles be removed, saying that medical staff have also requested this.
Zachary Stieber and Jacki Thrapp contributed to this report.
