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Christa Pike Survived Her Own Execution [Current Affairs]

October 12, 2026 · 7 min

Show notes

In 1995, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was murdered in Knoxville, Tennessee, by a classmate who believed she was after her boyfriend. Christa Pike spent the next three decades as the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. On September 30th, the state gave her two doses of pentobarbital, and she did not die. This week she woke up in a hospital bed, still under a death sentence, as her lawyers fight to keep Tennessee from trying again.

Current Affairs is Love Murder’s shorter show about the cases of love gone fatally wrong that are in the news right now.

Sources:

https://www.wbtv.com/2026/10/02/how-tennessees-failed-execution-christa-pike-unfolded-minute-by-minute/

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/christina-pike-stalled-execution-witnesses-describe-chaos

https://www.wbtv.com/2026/10/03/tennessees-prisons-chief-is-resigning-after-failed-execution-christa-pike-governor-says/

https://www.wsmv.com/2026/10/07/christa-pikes-attorneys-give-update-after-she-woke-up-failed-execution/

https://www.wect.com/2026/10/07/victims-mother-reacts-christa-pike-being-conscious-speaking-after-botched-execution-report-says/

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Credits: Love Murder is hosted by Jessie Pray and Andie Cassette, researched by Sarah Lynn Robinson and researched and written by Jessie Pray, produced by Nathaniel Whittemore and edited by Kyle Barbour-Hoffman

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