The state said its full execution protocol was completed before Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived an attempt to execute her by lethal injection Wednesday night after officials administered two doses of the execution drug, an extraordinary failure that led to her transfer to a medical facility and renewed scrutiny of the state’s execution process.
Pike, 50, remained alive after Tennessee officials carried out all procedures allowed under the state’s lethal-injection protocol, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. Her lawyers said witnesses could hear her breathing and snoring after the injections and filed an emergency request seeking to stop further efforts to execute her. Her condition after she was taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution was not immediately clear.
The Department of Correction said in a late Wednesday statement that officials had followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol. The agency said the lethal-injection chemical used under the protocol had previously been effective but that no additional procedures were authorized after those carried out Wednesday. Officials then transported Pike to an off-site medical facility.
Pike’s attorneys said two syringes containing pentobarbital had been administered during the execution attempt. In an emergency court filing, her legal team said she still had a heartbeat and could be heard snoring afterward. Media witnesses also described hearing heavy breathing, gasps and snoring during parts of the procedure, according to Reuters. The curtains separating witnesses from the execution chamber were closed at points during the process.
The execution had already been delayed for hours by an intense round of court proceedings. A federal appeals court temporarily stopped the execution Wednesday morning, about an hour before it had originally been scheduled. The U.S. Supreme Court later lifted that stay, allowing Tennessee to proceed. Pike’s lawyers then continued seeking judicial intervention as the state prepared to carry out the death sentence.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps center in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime. She and another defendant were convicted of first-degree murder. Tennessee’s Supreme Court set Sept. 30, 2026, as Pike’s execution date after concluding that her ordinary appeals process had been completed and declining a request related to commutation.
The case drew national attention because Pike would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years. Her lawyers had urged Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole, citing her age when the crime was committed, a history of severe childhood abuse and mental health diagnoses documented during her years in prison. Lee denied the clemency request before the scheduled execution.
Slemmer’s family had supported carrying out the death sentence. The competing arguments surrounding Pike’s case intensified in the days before the execution, with her attorneys emphasizing her background and age at the time of the crime while state officials maintained that her conviction and sentence had survived decades of legal review.
Wednesday’s failed attempt was also the second time in 2026 that Tennessee encountered major difficulties carrying out an execution. Reuters reported that officials abandoned another execution attempt in May after they were unable to establish suitable intravenous access. Pike’s attorneys had raised concerns before Wednesday’s procedure about the state’s lethal-injection process and the possibility of problems administering the drug.
Reuters reported that Lee suspended Tennessee’s remaining executions for 2026 following the Pike procedure and called for a comprehensive, independent review of what happened. The failed attempt leaves both practical and legal questions unresolved, including whether and when Tennessee could seek another execution date.
Pike remained alive after the state completed the procedures authorized by its lethal-injection protocol and was receiving medical treatment away from the prison. State officials had not immediately released detailed information about her medical condition or announced what steps would follow the investigation into the execution attempt.
Author note: Last updated October 1, 2026.