In this 2 October 2026 published video, host Brian Entin talks about Christa Gail Pike, an American death row inmate who survived a botched execution attempt in Tennessee. Currently 50 years old, she is the only woman on death row in Tennessee. The police chief who investigated her case explains why he believes she is “pure evil”. Also, one of the nation’s leading death penalty experts explains what could happen next to Pike.

At age 18, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp (17), and classmate Shadolla Peterson (18) lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into the woods in Knoxville, Tennessee. Driven by jealousy, Pike and Shipp brutally tortured and murdered Slemmer. In 1996, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the modern U.S. era. While incarcerated at the Tennessee Prison for Women, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after attempting to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones with a shoe string. Because Shipp was a minor, he was ineligible for the death penalty and received life in prison. 

Following a heavily criticized execution attempt via lethal injection on 30 September 2026, where prison officials used at least seven needles attempting to establish IV lines and despite receiving two full doses of pentobarbital (short-acting barbiturate and central nervous system depressant), Pike survived the execution attempt and is currently being treated at a Nashville hospital. Christa Pike’s attorneys in legal filings state she is unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator, and has significant burn, blister, and swelling injuries to both arms. Following the unprecedented botched attempt, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted all executions in the state for the remainder of 2026 and ordered an independent, third-party review of the state’s execution protocols.

Pike’s legal team has heavily litigated her sentence, arguing that her severe childhood trauma, history of sexual abuse, and untreated mental illnesses were never properly introduced as mitigating evidence during her original trial. Had her execution succeeded, she would have been the first woman executed by the state of Tennessee in over 200 years.

https://youtu.be/Vc1IZScq9s4

Botched execution — Christa Pike Could Fully Recover, Expert Says — What Happens Next?

In this episode of Brian Entin Investigates, Brian talks with an ER doctor about the drug used and why the doctor believes Pike could fully recover. Also, a law professor weighs in on what will happen next legally. Should lethal injection end in America? That question is coming into focus as the firing squad is discussed as a more humane form of execution.

https://youtu.be/IkhY_HdM2Ew