They tried to execute her twice. She survived. | Man faces trial 14 years after student’s slaying – TCN Sidebar

Joshua Ritter (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to The Sidebar, presented by True Crime News, taking you inside the courtrooms of high-profile and notorious cases from across the country. I'm your host, Joshua Ritter. I'm a criminal defense lawyer based in Los Angeles and previously an LA County prosecutor for over a decade. We are recording this on Thursday, October 8th, 2026 In this week's episode, a man facing trial for the murder and assault of a UNC student 14 years after her death. Plus, prosecutors drop additional charges against a man accused of pulling the trigger in a fatal custody battle in Florida. But first, Christa Pike's lethal injection survival as the nation grapples with state-sanctioned death procedures. Today, we are joined by Dave Aronberg, an attorney, former state senator and host of the YouTube channel Florida Lawman. Dave, welcome back, my friend. How are you?

Dave Aronberg (1:01)

Oh, it's great to be back with you, Josh. Thanks for having me.

Joshua Ritter (1:03)

Absolutely. I'm looking forward to this because I know that you have a long time experience as a prosecutor, and some of these cases are going to require some of that expertise. So let's jump right into Davidson County, Tennessee. A death row inmate regained consciousness earlier this week after two unsuccessful execution attempts. Christa Pike was set to be the first woman executed in the state in over 200 years before the planned lethal injection hit a snag and then another one. After receiving two doses of pentobarbital, Pike was still breathing and making choking sounds as officials struggled with next steps. Though the state allows for a second dose of the intravenous drugs, if the first is unsuccessful, there is no established protocol for what follows if that also fails. Ultimately, Pike was rushed to the hospital where she was intubated for over a week before regaining consciousness. Now, Pike is reportedly suffering from pneumonia and for the time being has lost the use of her arms as authorities determine if she will again face execution for the brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. The botched execution has brought national attention to execution practices which are shrouded in secrecy and a judge has ordered all evidence from the attempt to be maintained for legal examination. Dave, this whole thing is a mess, but I want to start with the idea that what I don't want to be forgotten here is the murder of Colleen Slemmer. It was brutal, it was awful, she was tortured, she had a pentagram carved into her chest and then Pike carried around a piece of her skull for several days before she was eventually apprehended. So this was a murder certainly deserving of the death penalty. But now we find ourselves in this situation where it has been completely botched after Pike's attorneys warned authorities that they were going to run into these troubles. So now in the told you so of all told you so's, we find ourselves in this position. My question for you is, do you think they can pursue the death penalty again? Do you think they should?

Is this perhaps a turning point in the way that we view this greatest penalty in our country?

Dave Aronberg (3:15)

Well, I think the answer is yes, they can. It's not necessarily an 8th Amendment violation of cruel, unusual punishment.

I know it just looks terrible. I mean, the incompetence of Tennessee authorities. This is not the first time this has happened. You had the Carruthers case where they couldn't find the vein, and apparently kept poking them all over. And this is something even worse because here they actually delivered the drugs and she survived. And so they can't, I mean, they'll screw up a two-car funeral, it looks like, these folks. And because of that, I would say the moratorium is correct. And they should consider taking her off death row and just give her life in prison because of the incompetence of Tennessee. But whether it's constitutional or not to actually go forward with it, my view is that it is constitutional. And this very conservative Supreme Court, with a six to three conservative majority, I believe will uphold it as not a violation of the Eighth Amendment Cruel Unusual Punishment. So the question to me is not whether it's constitutional, but whether the governor wants to actually go ahead with it even after the moratorium expires.

Joshua Ritter (4:24)

I think you're absolutely right. I think it's going to become much more of a political question at this point. If they put clemency in front of it, well, I don't know if it's clemency or if it would be considered just reducing her penalty, whatever powers he has to make it so that she's just received life without parole rather than the death penalty. I imagine the governor will jump at that opportunity just to kind of move on from the absolute disaster that this whole thing is. But I'm curious what you think on a national level the repercussions from this might be. Now, interestingly, you're in Florida, Florida law, man. Florida has no problem with executions. I did not realize this, but they executed 19 people last year and are track to reach a similar number this year. So certainly some states are fine with the idea of executions. I'm in California. It's been under a governor imposed moratorium for years and years and years.