Tennessee was unable to carry out the Christa Pike execution on Wednesday night, according to her attorneys and media witnesses, who said she was still alive after receiving two doses of lethal-injection drugs. Gov. Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive, third-party review. Pike, who would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years, was taken to a hospital, and her current condition has not been made public.
A day of court rulings
Pike's execution was scheduled for 10 a.m. CDT on Sept. 30. At 8:17 a.m. CDT, less than two hours earlier, a divided panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 stay, Fox17 reported. The panel said it needed more time to resolve the issues Pike's lawyers had raised, according to the Tennessee Lookout. Tennessee's attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay, and the court did so Wednesday evening. The court's liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that she saw "no reason to short-circuit the ordinary process of appellate review," according to the Lookout.
What witnesses and lawyers describe
The attempt took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The state's protocol calls for two 50 ml syringes of pentobarbital, and Pike received both, according to the Nashville Banner. Her attorneys' emergency motion said she had not lost consciousness, still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. Media witnesses backed that account. The motion also said the curtains to the chamber were lowered twice. Witnesses were asked to leave at about 8:53 p.m., and CBS News reported Pike could still be heard snoring as they exited. Journalists also described complaints of pain and her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets, according to NBC News, citing The Associated Press. Her lawyers filed emergency motions in federal court and the Tennessee Supreme Court. Reports cite filings in both, and the order is unclear. "Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution," her attorneys said in a statement.
Hospital, and an unanswered question
Pike was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Her attorneys said they had not been told her condition. A Department of Correction spokesperson did not say whether she was alive and said only that she had been "transported to an off-site medical facility," per NBC. Pike's current condition is unknown.
State response
In a statement, the Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed every step of the state's established execution protocol, which was approved by the attorney general's office. WKRN reported the department said the protocol has consistently been effective and doesn't allow additional procedures beyond what was carried out. Lee ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review" to determine what happened, WSMV reported. He also said the last remaining execution scheduled for this year will not go ahead as planned, per NBC. Pike's execution warrant was set to expire at midnight local time. The department did not say whether it would try again.
Who Pike is
Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. She was sentenced to death at 18 for the 1995 torture slaying of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps program, committed with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, according to NBC News, citing AP. Her attorneys say she suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child. Their latest appeal argued that her trial lawyers failed to present that history, an issue the 6th Circuit stayed the execution to consider.
The second troubled execution this year
This was the second time an execution did not go as planned in Tennessee in 2026. In May, officials called off Tony Carruthers' execution after the execution team could not find a vein for a backup IV line. He was granted a one-year reprieve, NBC reported.
What to watch next
Several questions remain open:
- Pike's condition: whether the state or her attorneys disclose how she is doing.
- Another attempt: whether Tennessee tries again, and on what timeline, since the department hasn't said.
- The review: what Lee's third-party review will examine, who leads it, and when it reports.
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