Grieving families say focus should remain on the victims as Christa Pike execution nears
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — As the physician involved in Tennessee’s recent failed execution told FOX 17 News he will also serve as the physician for death row inmate Christa Pike, victims' families say the controversy is overshadowing what their loved ones experienced.
Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and has an upcoming scheduled execution — the first for a woman in more than 200 years in the state.
As Pike fights for leniency, a family member of another murder victim says carrying out the sentence brings accountability.
On Friday, tears flowed from Melissa Jenkins, saying, "It's done," over her mother Catherine Jean Jenkins' grave in Nashville.
Catherine was brutally stabbed to death in Kingston Springs in 1985 while working as a maid at the CeBon motel.
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“It’s hard, it always will be,” Melissa emotionally said. “But now it’s like a little different because I know he paid for what he did to her.”
A day after the Tennessee Department of Correction executed Jenkins’ killer, Darrell Hines, Melissa said she’s beginning a new chapter.
“It ... helps the healing process,” Jenkins said.
Melissa has now become an advocate for other victims’ families waiting for justice.
“The rest of us have to be held accountable for what we do on a daily basis,” Melissa said. “They need to be as well.”
Pike was sentenced to die in 1996 for the murder of fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.
Court documents say Pike claimed Slemmer had been trying to get with her boyfriend.’
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Court records say Pike “had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim’s head,” cut her throat, and that a "pentagram was carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest", then Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, talked to FOX 17 News years ago.
“No one knows what it feels like to lose a child unless you’ve done lose a child,” Martinez said.
This week, Pike’s attorneys argued for her upcoming lethal injection to be delayed, saying she had “compromised veins” and there was a “risk” of severe pain. Her attorneys also called for alternative methods, including hanging.
“She deserves to pay for what she did,” Jenkins said. “And I am so sorry what Colleen’s family has had to go through for 30 years. I know how that feels. We did it for 40.”
The Tennessee Supreme Court set Pike’s execution for Sept. 30, 2026.
The special master report on the findings of Pike’s hearing this week has to be given to the Tennessee Supreme Court next Friday.