Convicted murderer Christa Pike survived a botched execution attempt in Tennessee Wednesday evening after she was administered two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital. Media witnesses and her attorneys reported that Pike was still very much alive, snoring, and maintaining a heartbeat approximately 40 minutes after the final dose, leading officials to transport her to a hospital for medical care.
Read more U.S. Unshackles Its Power Plants; Poor Nations Must Do the Same
Pike would have been the first woman executed in the state in over 200 years. Her legal team has filed an emergency motion citing cruel and unusual punishment, arguing the procedure caused unnecessary agony due to issues like difficult vein access and degraded drugs.
Her lawyers said she was “being provided life-saving measures” in the hospital, but she will likely have brain damage as a result. Medical experts indicate the delayed medical intervention after the failed execution likely caused severe hypoxic brain injury.
The overseeing physician, Dr. Mark Walton Fowler, also oversaw the botched execution of Tony Carruthers back in May.
Carruthers had spent more than 30 years on death row after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994.
During that botched execution, Walton failed to set up a central venous line in the prisoner’s chest or neck, a critical procedure he had not performed in roughly 13 years, according to NBC News.
The ordeal reportedly left Carruthers “crying out in pain after being punctured more than a dozen times across his body.” Gov. Bill Lee (R.) deferred his execution for one year.
In Pike’s final statement, she said she was “going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love,” Kim Chandler of the Associated Press reported. “She said she had love for the people who were out here hating on her.”
“She closed her statement with saying, ‘I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free,’ then something about celebrating her freedom, and then she closed with, ‘This is a happy day,’” Chandler said.
Pike then reportedly said “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open” at 7:34 p.m.
Will Puckett of WVLT Knoxville described Pike blinking, smiling and letting out “a couple of laughs during this process.”
“I saw a tear roll down (from) her right eye, and then she said, ‘one spot is really throbbing,’” Puckett said.
Pike then reportedly began to speak less and take big breaths. She lifted her head up at 7:39 p.m. and throughout the process, Pike “was kicking her feet so often that she was actually knocking the sheet that laid over her off,” Puckett said.
The curtain dropped for the first time at 7:46 p.m., before opening back up three minutes later. Pike began to sound as if she were loudly snoring, media witnesses said. Her spiritual adviser was brought back into the room.
Puckett described Pike’s lip quivering and Pike making sounds “like she was almost choking.” Pike continued making snoring sounds and at 7:54 p.m. she grunted, lifted her head and opened her mouth, Puckett said.
Two minutes later, “her body lifted off the gurney again, both her head and her legs” in a “v” shape, Puckett said.
The curtain closed for the final time at 8:05 p.m., and media witnesses said Pike snored in a consistent, rhythmic pattern interspersed with the sounds of doors opening and closing until 8:53 p.m., when witnesses were escorted out.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much of whatever just happened, happened behind a closed curtain,” Steven Hale of the Nashville Banner said. “When Christa Pike was still alive, we could still hear her breathing, but we could not see what was going on.”
Read more How Jamaica Continues to Ruin Its Brand With Reparations
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the Republican nominee in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial election, said in a statement Thursday morning that the “situation is tragic.”
“Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer,” Blackburn stated. “While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly. As your governor, I will do just that.”
Pike, 50, had a profoundly troubled childhood and spent over a year in a juvenile detention center in North Carolina prior to moving to Tennessee.
She was only 18-years-old in January 1995, when she spearheaded the brutal torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student in a Jobs Corps program in in Knoxville.
Pike had become convinced that Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Along with her friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee campus and kill her.
On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and headed for a secluded location in the woods. Pike and her co-conspirators allegedly told Slemmer they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival, Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer, while Peterson acted as lookout.
According to court testimony, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed for the next 30 minutes, with Shipp using a box cutter to carve a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive. Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer’s skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull, and began to show it off around the school.
The three were arrested within 36 hours and detectives found the piece of skull still in Pike’s jacket pocket.
Pike waived her Miranda rights and confessed to the police how she had participated in Slemmer’s killing, but insisted that they were only trying to scare Slemmer and their plan got out of control.
Slemmer’s mother repeatedly asked Tennessee authorities to return the skull fragment for proper burial, but it remained in the state’s possession as evidence. Authorities stated it could not be returned while the case remained open and awaiting Pike’s execution.
In a documentary that premiered September 2026 ahead of Pike’s scheduled execution, Dead Woman Walking: Pike vs. Tennessee, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, confirmed that after 16 years of fighting and writing letters, she had finally received her daughter’s skull from the state of Tennessee but had still not received the last piece her skull.
Slemmer’s stepfather, Raul Martinez, expressed his bitter disappointment in the botched execution on Facebook.
I’m sure by now everyone knows that the state of Tennessee botched the execution of Christa Pike and thank you to all the donors that helped with the final journey to Nashville…unfortunately Colleen’s soul cannot rest until this monster succumbs to the 2 doses of Pentobarbital that she was given…this bitch will haunt Colleen’s heavenly journey until she’s been wiped off the face of the earth…she is now in a local hospital locked up with chains and 2 armed guards and nothing can be done until the bitch croaks…sorry for the blunt language…right now I am not a happy camper.
While on death row, Pike converted to Buddhism.
In January 2026, she filed a lawsuit in the Davidson County Chancery Court challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol, asserting it violated her constitutional rights and conflicted with her religious beliefs. The state recently changed its execution protocol from a three-drug cocktail to solely pentobarbital to induce respiratory and cardiac arrest.
Pike argued that Tennessee’s statute limiting communication with her Buddhist spiritual advisor during the final 12 hours before her execution, restricted her “sincerely held religious belief of Buddhism,” violated her First Amendment rights, and burdened her right to free exercise of religion.
Pike released the following message on September 29, before the final round of execution-day court proceedings through her Buddhist spiritual advisor.
“I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has supported me through these hard days. I’ve felt more love in the last two weeks than I have my entire life. Though there was an absence — when my people showed up for me — they have showed up and showed out! I am humbled beyond words. Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace. I am not afraid to die. I’m only nervous about the process. I want to thank everyone for their time and attention in exposing my true character above the limited public persona that has been the only narrative. Also thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak in my own words! I wish you love & kindness, Christa Gail Pike.”
Read more Morning Greatness: State Department Says Four Americans on Board Dubai Flight to Israel
