Christa Pike latest death penalty mistake
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Oct 02, 2026 • Last updated 22 hours ago • 3 minute read
This handout picture dated January 12, 2023 provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows convicted US murderer Christa Pike. The US state of Tennessee is set on September 30, 2026, to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years, three decades after she murdered a classmate. Christa Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.
This handout picture dated Jan. 12, 2023, provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction, shows death row inmate Christa Pike. The state of Tennessee attempted to execute Pike on Sept. 30, 2026 — which would have marked the first execution of a woman in the state in more than 200 years — but the lethal injection ultimately failed after she survived two doses of the drug. Photo by HANDOUT /Tennessee Department of Correcti
Two doses of a deadly toxic cocktail could not kill convicted murderer Christa Pike.
Her botched execution on Wednesday night in Nashville is just the latest mistake-laden death penalty coda.
The 50-year-old — on death row since she was 18 for the brutal murder of a love rival — is now in critical condition in a Music City hospital. Officials have been tight-lipped about her condition, but some reports claim Pike was brain-damaged by the process.
Sadly, Pike’s execution isn’t the first, nor will it be the last to go off the rails. From exploding heads to decapitations, from hanging to lethal injection, botched executions are nothing new.
Turpin, left, and Detroit gangster Arthur Lucas were the last two men to hang in Canada. TORONTO TELEGRAM
Turpin, left, and Detroit gangster Arthur Lucas were the last two men to hang in Canada. (TORONTO TELEGRAM)
ARTHUR LUCAS
411: Detroit hitman was one of the last two people hanged in Canada. He found himself on the gallows at Toronto’s Don Jail for murdering an informant and his prostitute girlfriend. On Dec. 13, 1963, Lucas, 54, was executed, but his head was “torn right off” and was hanging by the sinews of his neck. The hangman miscalculated his weight.
COP KILLER: Jesse Tafero died in agony. (FDC)
COP KILLER: Jesse Tafero died in agony. (FDC)
JESSE TAFERO
411: Tafero was slated to ride the lightning for the cold-blooded 1976 double murder of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Phillip A. Black and his pal, OPP Corp. Donald Irwin. Tafero’s date with the electric chair was on May 4, 1990. But when the executioner threw the switch, six-inch flames and a cloud of smoke emerged from Tafero’s hooded head. His dispatch required three jolts of electricity. Reason? “Inadvertent human error.”
QUOTE: “It took seven minutes before the prison doctor pronounced him dead, seven minutes of heaving, nodding, flame, and smoke.” — EXECUTION WITNESS
DOOMED: Clayton Lockett. (ODC)
DOOMED: Clayton Lockett. (ODC)
CLAYTON LOCKETT
411: Lockett went to collect money owed to him for drugs at the Oklahoma home of Bobby Bornt. There, he raped a young woman, Summer Hair, and murdered her friend Stephanie Neiman. On April 29, 2014, the day of execution, he had to be tasered to get him into the death room. Lockett’s heart should have stopped immediately after he was injected with potassium chloride. It did not and he was injected again, this time hitting an artery and causing blood to spray around the death house, soaking the doctor. Lockett died en route to hospital.
QUOTE: “It was like a horror movie. He [Lockett] kept trying to talk.” — WITNESS EDITH SHOALS
TOMMASINA TEOLIS-SARO
411: The Montreal femme fatale had plotted with two hitmen to take her hubby off the board. And on March 28, 1935, Teolis-Saro was decapitated at Bordeaux Prison when executioner Arthur Ellis made a miscalculation on her weight. It ended the black widow but also the career of Canada’s hangman because of the public outcry.
JIMMY LEE GRAY: AN AGONIZING DEATH. (MDC)
JIMMY LEE GRAY: AN AGONIZING DEATH. (MDC)
JIMMY LEE GRAY
411: The executioner was hammered when Gray — who kidnapped, raped and murdered a three-year-old Mississippi girl — was about to get his ticket punched on September 2, 1983. But the sodden executioner failed to administer the correct amount of toxic gas. As a result, it took 10 agonizing minutes of horrific pain.
JOHN EVANS: Night train to Nowheresville. (Getty Images)
JOHN EVANS: Night train to Nowheresville. (Getty Images)
JOHN EVANS
411: Evans went to the Alabama electric chair — known as Yellow Mama — On April 22, 1983, for the 1977 murder of a Mobile pawn shop owner. On his day of destiny, Evans was literally burned alive after surviving 1900 volt shocks.
QUOTE: “A large puff of greyish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans’s face. An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room. The stench of burning flesh was nauseating.” — EVANS’ LAWYER, RUSSELL CANAN
This January 24, 2020, image obtained from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in Oklahoma City, shows death row inmate John Marion Grant.
This January 24, 2020, image obtained from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in Oklahoma City shows death row inmate John Marion Grant. Photo by Oklahoma Department of Correction /AFP via Getty Images
JOHN MARION GRANT
411: Grant, 60, was serving a 130-year sentence for armed robbery when he murdered a prison worker – earning him a ticket on the night train. But on October 28, 2021, he was given the toxic cocktail to eternity and was left convulsing and puking on the gurney. He was pronounced dead a horrific 21 minutes after he was first administered midazolam.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Oct 02, 2026 • Last updated 22 hours ago • 3 minute read
This handout picture dated January 12, 2023 provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows convicted US murderer Christa Pike. The US state of Tennessee is set on September 30, 2026, to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years, three decades after she murdered a classmate. Christa Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.
This handout picture dated Jan. 12, 2023, provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction, shows death row inmate Christa Pike. The state of Tennessee attempted to execute Pike on Sept. 30, 2026 — which would have marked the first execution of a woman in the state in more than 200 years — but the lethal injection ultimately failed after she survived two doses of the drug. Photo by HANDOUT /Tennessee Department of Correcti
Two doses of a deadly toxic cocktail could not kill convicted murderer Christa Pike.
Her botched execution on Wednesday night in Nashville is just the latest mistake-laden death penalty coda.
The 50-year-old — on death row since she was 18 for the brutal murder of a love rival — is now in critical condition in a Music City hospital. Officials have been tight-lipped about her condition, but some reports claim Pike was brain-damaged by the process.
Sadly, Pike’s execution isn’t the first, nor will it be the last to go off the rails. From exploding heads to decapitations, from hanging to lethal injection, botched executions are nothing new.
Turpin, left, and Detroit gangster Arthur Lucas were the last two men to hang in Canada. TORONTO TELEGRAM
Turpin, left, and Detroit gangster Arthur Lucas were the last two men to hang in Canada. (TORONTO TELEGRAM)
ARTHUR LUCAS
411: Detroit hitman was one of the last two people hanged in Canada. He found himself on the gallows at Toronto’s Don Jail for murdering an informant and his prostitute girlfriend. On Dec. 13, 1963, Lucas, 54, was executed, but his head was “torn right off” and was hanging by the sinews of his neck. The hangman miscalculated his weight.
COP KILLER: Jesse Tafero died in agony. (FDC)
COP KILLER: Jesse Tafero died in agony. (FDC)
JESSE TAFERO
411: Tafero was slated to ride the lightning for the cold-blooded 1976 double murder of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Phillip A. Black and his pal, OPP Corp. Donald Irwin. Tafero’s date with the electric chair was on May 4, 1990. But when the executioner threw the switch, six-inch flames and a cloud of smoke emerged from Tafero’s hooded head. His dispatch required three jolts of electricity. Reason? “Inadvertent human error.”
QUOTE: “It took seven minutes before the prison doctor pronounced him dead, seven minutes of heaving, nodding, flame, and smoke.” — EXECUTION WITNESS
DOOMED: Clayton Lockett. (ODC)
DOOMED: Clayton Lockett. (ODC)
CLAYTON LOCKETT
411: Lockett went to collect money owed to him for drugs at the Oklahoma home of Bobby Bornt. There, he raped a young woman, Summer Hair, and murdered her friend Stephanie Neiman. On April 29, 2014, the day of execution, he had to be tasered to get him into the death room. Lockett’s heart should have stopped immediately after he was injected with potassium chloride. It did not and he was injected again, this time hitting an artery and causing blood to spray around the death house, soaking the doctor. Lockett died en route to hospital.
QUOTE: “It was like a horror movie. He [Lockett] kept trying to talk.” — WITNESS EDITH SHOALS
TOMMASINA TEOLIS-SARO
411: The Montreal femme fatale had plotted with two hitmen to take her hubby off the board. And on March 28, 1935, Teolis-Saro was decapitated at Bordeaux Prison when executioner Arthur Ellis made a miscalculation on her weight. It ended the black widow but also the career of Canada’s hangman because of the public outcry.
JIMMY LEE GRAY: AN AGONIZING DEATH. (MDC)
JIMMY LEE GRAY: AN AGONIZING DEATH. (MDC)
JIMMY LEE GRAY
411: The executioner was hammered when Gray — who kidnapped, raped and murdered a three-year-old Mississippi girl — was about to get his ticket punched on September 2, 1983. But the sodden executioner failed to administer the correct amount of toxic gas. As a result, it took 10 agonizing minutes of horrific pain.
JOHN EVANS: Night train to Nowheresville. (Getty Images)
JOHN EVANS: Night train to Nowheresville. (Getty Images)
JOHN EVANS
411: Evans went to the Alabama electric chair — known as Yellow Mama — On April 22, 1983, for the 1977 murder of a Mobile pawn shop owner. On his day of destiny, Evans was literally burned alive after surviving 1900 volt shocks.
QUOTE: “A large puff of greyish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans’s face. An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room. The stench of burning flesh was nauseating.” — EVANS’ LAWYER, RUSSELL CANAN
This January 24, 2020, image obtained from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in Oklahoma City, shows death row inmate John Marion Grant.
This January 24, 2020, image obtained from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in Oklahoma City shows death row inmate John Marion Grant. Photo by Oklahoma Department of Correction /AFP via Getty Images
JOHN MARION GRANT
411: Grant, 60, was serving a 130-year sentence for armed robbery when he murdered a prison worker – earning him a ticket on the night train. But on October 28, 2021, he was given the toxic cocktail to eternity and was left convulsing and puking on the gurney. He was pronounced dead a horrific 21 minutes after he was first administered midazolam.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
EXECUTIONER'S WRONG: Christa Pike latest death penalty mistake
Sadly, Pike's execution isn't the first, nor will it be the last to go off the rails. Read on.
enette Wilford
