NASHVILLE, TN. (THECOUNT) — Christa Pike, Tennessee’s only woman on death row, was hospitalized after prison officials failed to complete her execution Wednesday night, administering two doses of lethal-injection medication before the procedure was halted.
Pike, 50, was taken to an off-site medical facility after the attempted execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The execution began at about 8 p.m. local time after a daylong legal battle over whether Tennessee could proceed with the lethal injection.
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Pike’s attorneys filed an emergency motion during the attempted execution, saying she had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat. After the two failed injections, Pike was observed snoring loudly, according to her legal team. One of her attorneys told the BBC that Pike was being provided with life-saving measures at the hospital after two syringes of pentobarbital had been administered.
The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed that Pike had been transferred to an off-site medical facility following the failed execution.
In a statement released after the attempt, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he had ordered a comprehensive, independent review to determine what occurred during the execution. Lee also halted the state’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed the state’s established execution protocol.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” department spokesperson Dorinda Carter told The Tennessean.
Carter said the lethal-injection chemical used in the protocol had consistently been effective and that the protocol did not allow for additional procedures beyond those carried out Wednesday night.
Pike’s failed execution came after a last-minute legal battle that began Wednesday morning. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit temporarily stayed her execution less than two hours before the scheduled lethal injection while considering arguments raised by her attorneys.
The U.S. Supreme Court later vacated that stay, clearing the way for Tennessee to proceed. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Pike’s attorneys had argued that her trial lawyers failed to adequately present evidence of her history of childhood sexual abuse and mental-health conditions. They sought to have her death sentence changed to life imprisonment.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1995 killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, 19. Pike was 18 when Slemmer was killed at a Job Corps facility in Knoxville.
Prosecutors said Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked Slemmer, with Pike striking her with a piece of asphalt and carving a pentagram into her body. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was convicted for his role and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Pike has remained on Tennessee’s death row since 1996. If her execution had been successfully completed, she would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Wednesday’s failed execution was the second time this year Tennessee has been unable to carry out an execution. In May, officials called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers after executioners spent more than an hour attempting to establish an IV through which pentobarbital could be administered.
Carruthers was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994. His execution was ultimately halted because prison officials were unable to establish the necessary IV access.
Lee’s order halting Tennessee’s remaining 2026 execution means no additional execution is expected to take place in the state this year while the review into Wednesday night’s failed procedure proceeds.
Riverbend Maximum Security Institution is located in Nashville, the Tennessee capital and seat of Davidson County. The prison is in the Cockrill Bend area west of downtown Nashville along the Cumberland River.
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