On Wednesday, September 30th, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike with two rounds of lethal injections. 50-year-old Pike has been held in prison for over three decades after she tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19 at the time, while both were working in the Knoxville Job Corps. Pike was not alone. She lured Slemmer to the woods with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and together, they stabbed and beat Slemmer to death, but because he was underage at the time of the crime, he was given a less severe sentence (life in prison). Pike was sentenced to death, and she was set to be the first woman executed in the state in over two centuries.
But Pike did not die.
Instead, Pike suffered for two hours strapped to a gurney as the team inserted more than seven needles in her arm.