By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-08 16:26:52 | Updated at 2026-10-08 18:28:57
2 hours ago
Murderer Christa Pike’s lawyer said she has been walking around her hospital room after surviving two botched lethal injections on September 30 in Tennessee.
Lawyer Stephen Ferrell said she is “up and walking” in her hospital room, BBC reported Thursday.
Regarding her mental state, Ferrell said, “I think it’s kind of good and bad. Good that she is fairly with it, but she’s also somewhat foggy. She can lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she’s going.”
Following her failed execution, Pike was said to be unconscious and in critical condition when she was taken to a hospital. However, when she woke up on Tuesday, attorney Randall Spivey later said, “She is angry and confused about everything right now. She is very aware that the state tried to execute her,” per the New York Post.
Spivey also said the killer’s first words when she woke up were “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
Pike, who was found guilty and sentenced to death following the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, had asked for an all-female lethal injection team before entering the death chamber, and that request was granted, Breitbart News reported October 1. Pike was 18 years old when she murdered Slemmer.
Fox News detailed the horrific crime Christa Pike committed against her 19-year-old victim, Colleen Slemmer:
Led by 18-year-old Christa Pike, three classmates from a vocational school for troubled youths, the Knoxville Job Corps Center, lured Slemmer to her death by claiming they wanted to go to a music store and pick up marijuana they’d stashed in a park.
…
They tortured Slemmer for nearly an hour, [former Knoxville Police Chief Phil] Keith said, beating, cutting and gagging her before crushing her skull against the ground with a chunk of broken asphalt.
When she tried to escape, they held her down. When she begged for her life, they slashed her with blades. And when she cried, they gagged her with a hair tie. Pike, 18 at the time and now 50, kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy and showed it off to classmates before her arrest. Her boyfriend at the time, who was also convicted but did not face the death penalty because he was only 17, carved pentagrams into her chest and face.
Ferrell told BBC Pike’s arms were injured and she was unable to use them normally.
“Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered a pause on all executions in the state for the rest of the year, and has said he wants answers about what went wrong. The state’s prisons chief is resigning after the failed execution,” the outlet said.
In a social media post on October 1, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote, “This situation is tragic. Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer.”
“While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly. As your governor, I will do just that,” she concluded.
