What This Story Is About
Authorities have released the transcript of the 911 call made from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution the night of Christa Pike’s attempted execution.
Why It Matters
Christa Pike received what was supposed to be two lethal doses of pentobarbital, but survived. She has been hospitalized ever since and, at one point, was thought to be brain dead.
For Context
Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, a sentence she received for the 1995 “grotesque” torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.
Catch Up
Live updates: Christa Pike is conscious and able to walk days after she was thought to be brain dead from botched executionWhat to know as Christa Pike regains consciousness after failed execution and her ’grotesque’ 1995 torture, murder of classmateTN’s lethal injection protocol went from 106 pages to just 44. Christa Pike’s attorneys spent months warning of ‘vague’ new rules.Christa Pike was thought to be brain dead hours before she regained consciousness. Here’s the latest on her condition.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – What happened the night Christa Pike’s attempted execution failed? Authorities have released the transcript of the 911 call made from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution that night, providing new details about what occurred.
Metro Nashville Emergency Communications Center (DEC) released the transcript on Monday — a little over one week after the botched execution.
The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) first received notification of the incident at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution through a 911 call at 8:40 p.m. CT on Sept. 30, 2026.
DEC said following a review by Metro Legal, it was determined that the original 911 audio call is exempt from public disclosure under Tennessee Code § 10-7-504(h).
“While recognizing this exemption, DEC has made a good-faith effort to provide additional information by preparing a written account of the initial call based on a review of the audio recording,” a spokesperson for DEC said.
The written account was released below:
What happened the night of Christa Pike’s attempted execution?
The failed attempt happened after a day of back-and-forth amongst courts about whether the procedure would proceed.
Pike was scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution the morning of Sept. 30, but shortly before, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered that her execution be paused.
The pause was issued because the court believed that she should be allowed to challenge the legality of her sentence. Pike’s attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain that pause while a federal appeals court reviewed a new legal challenge.
That evening, the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision that the execution would be allowed to proceed. She would have been the first woman in more than 200 years to be executed in Tennessee. She is the only woman on death row in the state.
But things went wrong when they attempted to administer the two doses of pentobarbital.
“The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to bust,” witnesses heard Pike say as she was undergoing lethal injection.
The state administered two doses of pentobarbital that were supposed to be lethal. But witnesses and her attorneys say that they did not have the intended effect. Instead, one witness said, “heavy snoring is the best description we can get you for the noises she was making.”
Shortly after, WSMV observed ambulances arriving at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and leaving soon after, followed by police.
Pike was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Attorneys later confirmed that she was unconscious and on a ventilator. It was revealed that on Oct. 5, her attorneys and medical team believed she was brain dead and would be taken off life support within the days.
But she regained consciousness the following morning.
“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is that Christa has a long road to recovery,” one of her attorneys, Randy Spivey, said.
Pike’s attorneys announced on Saturday that she had been released from the hospital and was returned to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she has been housed for more than 30 years.
Why is Christa Pike on death row?
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
The case revealed that Pike, who was 18 at the time, worked with 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson to plan and carry out the killing, which became known as the “Jobs Corps Murder.” Pike and Slemmer had both been Jobs Corps members at the time of the murder, which took place on the University of Tennessee campus.
Phil Keith, who was the Knoxville Police Chief during the 1995 murder, described it as “an incredibly grotesque crime scene, one of the most brutal I’ve ever seen.”
According to Keith, Pike had tortured Slemmer for nearly an hour with a box cutter, “carving a pentagram on her chest before she crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.”
Pike’s lawyers have argued that her upbringing was not given enough consideration in her case. According to her defense, Pike was a victim of child abuse and multiple rapes, details they say were kept from the jury during her trial.
Tennessee previously claimed Pike was lying about her childhood, but has since acknowledged the abuse in open court.
For Keith, the upbringing is not an excuse.
“If everyone that had an abusive lifestyle killed someone, there’d be a lot more murders in this country,” he said. “This is not about how she’s become reformed, or that those days are past. Her values or morals have been set for a long time, and somewhere along the way, they got twisted.”
While Keith said that Pike never showed any remorse for the crime, Pike’s friend, Misty Armstrong, said otherwise.
According to Armstrong, Pike spent much of her time in prison trying to help other inmates.
“It took years of therapy for her to get there, but she did,” she said. “She changed and became a completely different person.”
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