Month: October 2026

Tennessee has failed in its attempt to execute Christa Pike, who survived and was rushed to hospital late on Wednesday despite being administered two doses of a lethal drug.

Pike was due to be the first woman put to death in the state in 200 years, after a court overturned a late stay of execution. Experts say her survival is unprecedented.

Officials administered pentobarbital to Pike twice, but she was later heard snoring. Witnesses say the curtain to the execution chamber was drawn and reopened on two separate occasions before the procedure was halted and they were asked to leave.

The attempted execution took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at about 8pm local time. Pike, 50, was being executed for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student she tortured and killed when she was 18.

The execution had already been delayed for hours after a panel of the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay to allow further review of her legal challenges. The US Supreme Court later lifted that stay at Tennessee’s request in a 6-3 decision, allowing the execution to proceed before Pike’s death warrant expired at midnight.

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Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maxiumum Security Institution in Nashville. However, the procedure was not successful and she received medical care following an execution attempt, according to a court filing. Her attorneys reported she was still breathing after receiving two doses of lethal injections.

Execution witnesses told reporters that they were asked to leave while Pike apparently was still alive. Reporters were waiting to hear from the Tennessee Department of Corrections as an ambulance arrived.

Hours later, they were still waiting and reported that prison officials told them they would need to leave the property.

Media witnesses who were in a death chamber viewing room reported that Pike talked about experiencing pain during the process.

“She said that there was a spot that was burning and asked if that was normal,” witness WLPN health reporter Catherine Sweeney said. “None of it was normal. I covered all the executions last year and most of the ones this year. We haven’t seen anything like it. It went really poorly.”

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