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Christa Pike was convicted of another crime behind bars that most people don't know about
Christa Pike was already on death row for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer when she was involved in another serious act of violence behind bars.
In 2001, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree premeditated murder after strangling inmate Patricia Jones with a shoelace at the Tennessee Prison for Women, now known as the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
The confrontation took place after a fire in the prison’s maximum-security unit forced several inmates to be evacuated from their cells.
Pike, Jones, and another prisoner, Natasha Cornett, were placed together in a recreation cage.
An argument broke out after inmates were evacuated
Per Jones' testimony, an argument soon developed between her and Cornett.
She said Cornett tried to hit her but missed. As Jones prepared to fight Cornett, Pike came up behind Jones and began choking her with shoelaces. Jones eventually lost consciousness.
Prosecutors argued that the strangulation was not an attempt to break up the fight, but a premeditated attempt to kill Jones. However, Pike contended that she had intervened to protect Cornett from Jones.
Jones survived the attack, and Pike was sentenced to an additional 25-year prison sentence.
Pike later survived an attempted execution
Pike, now 50, survived two rounds of pentobarbital on Wednesday (September 30) and was later hospitalized for life-saving medical care.
Her lawyers say prison staff struggled to establish intravenous access and used at least seven needles during the procedure.
At one stage, she allegedly complained that her arm felt like "it's about to burst open," and later allegedly asked: "Does this happen like that?"
Pike now remains critically ill while her lawyers seek to have her sentence commuted, and the state investigates how the execution went so badly wrong.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all scheduled executions in the state for the remainder of the year.
Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is also expected to resign from his post at the end of the month.
He said stepping aside was "in the best interests" of Tennessee and described the investigation into the failed procedure as "entirely appropriate and necessary," per CNN.
Pike was sentenced to death in March 1996 after confessing to the horrific murder of her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
She had become convinced that Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and the pair - along with their friend, Shadolla Peterson, who acted as lookout - lured Slemmer to a secluded location where she was brutally beaten and killed.
According to Tennessee Supreme Court files obtained by News.com.au, Pike "told her friend Kim Iloilo, who was also a student at the facility, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she 'had just felt mean that day'.
"Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir," the documents stated.
"Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing 'la, la, la' while she related these details about the murder.
"When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning, she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim’s skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, 'And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it.'"
Had last Wednesday's execution gone as planned, Pike would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.