Christa Pike Survives Tennessee Execution Attempt After Two Injections

Christa Pike remained alive Thursday after Tennessee prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital during a failed execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to her attorneys and witnesses.

Pike, 50, was strapped to a gurney Wednesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution. Her legal team said she retained a heartbeat, had not lost consciousness and could be heard snoring after receiving two syringes of the lethal drug. Witnesses said she continued breathing throughout the procedure and at one point asked prison officials whether it was supposed to feel that way.

Officials later moved Pike to a hospital, where her lawyers said she was receiving lifesaving treatment and was in critical condition. A physician retained by her legal team said the delay before resuscitation could have caused a brain injury.

Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the execution attempt and canceled Tennessee’s remaining execution scheduled for 2026. The state had also halted an execution in May after staff were unable to establish an intravenous line.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of her 19-year-old former classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time of the killing and was the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her execution would have been the state’s first of a woman in more than 200 years.