Latest / Surviving-ISH Podcast / Karma for Colleen Slemmer? The Horrific Botched Execution of Christa Pike

Transcript

Karma for Colleen Slemmer? The Horrific Botched Execution of Christa Pike · Surviving-ISH Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another mini episode of Surviving Ish.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know that usually I talk about politics, but today I want to talk about something else.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been following the news over the past week, you know that something massive and terrifying and deeply complex broke right here in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story that goes back over 30 years, but a series of shocking events in Nashville just put this story back on the front page of the news across the country.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when this story hit the news, I immediately reached out to Jamie and Christy over at Speculating Wildly About Crime.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I text them and was like, hey guys, this is happening in my backyard.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening right now as we speak.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you guys want to talk about it?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: They said yes, and we recorded a deep dive panel discussion, breaking in on the whole story, the crime, the trial, the 30 years of death row journey, and the shocking headline news that unfolded just days ago.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Before that episode is ready on SmackPod, I wanted to drop a mini episode right here on Surviving Ish.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get into our main topic today here on Ish, I wanted to jump in for just a minute.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know we don't like as, but please just hear me out for just a second, okay?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a true crime fan looking for a podcast that gives back to the community, you need to check out Speculating Wildly About Crime.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's hosted by our friends Jamie and Christy, and they tackle massive unsolved mysteries like Brian Schaefer, Jason Landry, and Ellen Greenberg.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But they also highlight unreported cases that deserve real media coverage, like the Allie Lewitzer case.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: They actually connected with Allie's mother, Joanne, to share her search for answers.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And every true crime fan knows that they need a mental health break.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jamie and Christy bring on awesome guests, including myself and our friend Jenny from Unholier podcast for hilarious pop coaster palette cleansers on Bravo Reality TV, like The Valley, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and The Real Housewives of New York.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So head over to YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Search Swag Pod and subscribe today.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to start in January of 1995, right here in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The victim was 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: She just moved from Florida to Knoxville to join the Knoxville Job Corpse, looking to build a career and a future for herself.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: She was a daughter.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: She had a loving family.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: She was so full of hope and full of life and was taking her first real steps into adulthood.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But then, on January 12th, 1995, Colleen was lured into an isolated wooded area near the Job Corpse Center.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: She went there believing she was meeting fellow students to clear the air about some dorm drama.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they were gonna smoke a little pot.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, she walked into a trap set by three strangers.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: One was 18-year-old Krista Pike, the other one was 17-year-old Todd Darrell Ship, and then the other person was 18-year-old Shadella Peterson.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: What followed was 30 to 45 minutes of extreme cruelty.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Colleen was beaten, tortured, and slashed.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: A pentagon was carved into her chest, an act long attributed to Krista, though evidence shows it was actually 17-year-old Ship who carved it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The attack ended when 18-year-old Krista Pike bashed Colleen's head with a heavy piece of asphalt, inflicting the fatal blow.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Krista then broke off a piece of Colleen's skull and kept it in her pocket.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: She bragged about it to others.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Shadella Peterson acted as the lookout, later testified for the state, received immunity, and served no jail time.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: That left Krista Pike and Triderell Ship to face trial in 1996.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the 1996 trial resulted in two very different outcomes.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Traderell Ship, who was 17 at the time, if you'll remember, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Krista Pike, who was 18, was sentenced to death, becoming the youngest woman on death row in modern U.S.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: history.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why the disparity?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Ship was legally a juvenile, but just by a few months, while Krista was bare had just barely turned 18.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, the prosecution framed Krista as the cold mastermind and ringleader.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: However, key mitigation evidence was left out during her trial.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The jury never heard about Krista's severe childhood trauma, her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and PTSD, or her history of being sexually assaulted three times before the age of 17.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say that as a survivor myself, I know trauma is never an excuse to inflict harm on any other human being.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But as we explore on surviving-ish, understanding these patterns is essential if you ever hope to prevent violence before it happens.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Krista spent 30 years incarcerated, 27 of them in solitary confinement.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: During her time in prison, she was involved in an attempted strangulation of another inmate and an escape attempt during a fire.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then came late 2026.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: The state of Tennessee scheduled her execution for September 30th, which would have made her the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries, in 200 years.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Krista's legal team did beg the state to alter the execution method.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Expert medical testimony stated that her severely damaged veins would make lethal injection impossible and inhumane.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The state denied these requests and proceeded.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: On September 30th, the execution in Nashville went horribly wrong.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: The execution team spent nearly an hour attempting to find a viable vein.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: When the drugs were administered, the vein ruptured, causing a leak to her tissue.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Krista flinched, lifted her head, and cried out that her arm felt like it was about to bust.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Witnesses sat over an hour listening to her gasp through the open microphone and sometimes snoring.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Later on, a second dose was administered.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: She survived that one too, y'all.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Krista Pike was unstrapped from the gurney and rushed to the ICU and Vanderbilt University Medical Center with chemical burns and severe respiratory distress.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Days later, she regained consciousness in the hospital, confused, injured, and asking where she was.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Following the disaster, the director of Tennessee Department of Corrections resigned, and Governor Bill Lee ordered a complete pause on executions across the state.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: The situation created an unprecedented legal and ethical disaster.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have zero closure for the victim's family.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Colleen Slimmer's mother, who raised funds via GoFundMe to travel to Nashville, had to sit through a two-hour-long box execution attempt only to return home to Florida without any answers, without closure.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens next when a state fails twice to carry out a sentence?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does justice look like 30 years after a crime?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So on my guest appearance on Speculating Modely About Crime, Jamie Christie and I were going to dive deep into the full courtroom details and sentencing disparities, the moral and legal debate surrounding mitigation evidence and solitary confinement, the systematic failures that led to a botched execution in Nashville, and what this means for the victims' family, the state of Tennessee, and the justice system moving forward.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, guys, do me a favor, head over to your podcast app right now and search for Speculating Wildly About Crime.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's also known as SWAC Pod.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: This episode will be coming out within the next week or so, I believe.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the full panel discussion.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe to SWAC and let us know your thoughts on this breaking case.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for tuning into this update of Surviving Ish.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you over at SWAC Pod.