Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been taken to a hospital after authorities failed to complete her execution following two injections of the lethal drug pentobarbital, according to her lawyers.
Pike’s legal team filed an emergency motion while the execution was underway, seeking to stop the process and secure medical treatment. The lawyers said Pike had lost consciousness but continued to have a heartbeat and was audibly snoring.
One of her attorneys told the BBC that the 50-year-old was receiving life-saving treatment at a hospital after the two doses of pentobarbital were administered.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The killing occurred in 1995 when Pike was 18 and attending a job-training programme for troubled teenagers. She and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of beating, torturing and killing Slemmer.
The execution was carried out at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday.
According to the Associated Press, Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, while the curtain separating witnesses from the execution chamber was closed twice. Media representatives were also reportedly asked to leave at one point.
Tennessee’s execution protocol provides for a second set of syringes if the first dose fails to kill the inmate. However, the protocol reportedly does not specify what should happen if the prisoner remains alive after the second set of drugs has been administered.
Following the incident, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review to establish what happened. He also said the state’s final scheduled execution of the year would not proceed as planned.
The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its handling of the execution, saying officials followed the state’s approved procedures. Department spokesperson Dorinda Carter said the lethal injection drug had consistently been effective and that the protocol did not provide for additional procedures beyond those carried out.
Pike’s lawyers, however, accused the state of failing to conduct a lawful execution. They claimed that concerns they had previously raised—including difficulty accessing veins, damaged veins and concerns about the condition of the pentobarbital—had materialised.
Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert retained by Pike’s legal team, told the BBC that Pike may not have received enough pentobarbital in her bloodstream to cause the respiratory and cardiovascular failure normally expected during an execution. He also warned that delays in providing resuscitation could potentially have caused brain damage.
The failed execution came after a series of legal challenges by Pike’s lawyers. The US Supreme Court rejected efforts to halt the lethal injection, including overturning a temporary reprieve granted by a lower court shortly before the execution.
Pike’s lawyers had also argued that jurors who sentenced her to death in 1996 were not allowed to fully consider evidence of her history of childhood sexual abuse. Although Tennessee had previously challenged her claims of abuse, the state later acknowledged during proceedings concerning her execution method that she had experienced sexual abuse and rape.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also rejected Pike’s request for clemency earlier in the week. Pike is the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row.
In her clemency petition, Pike expressed remorse for Slemmer’s death, saying she had intended to assault her but did not intend to kill her. She described herself at the time of the crime as an 18-year-old who had suffered mental health difficulties and said it took years for her to understand the full consequences of her actions.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had supported the execution and travelled from Florida with her husband to witness it. Following the failed attempt, she described the situation as “a mess.”
Slemmer’s 1995 murder attracted significant media attention in Knoxville after her body was discovered with an inverted pentagram carved into her chest. Pike has denied carving the symbol.
The case also involved testimony from other residents at the training camp, who said Pike had spoken about the killing and shown them a piece of Slemmer’s skull.
The incident is not the first disrupted execution in Tennessee in 2026. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, was postponed after prison staff were unable to locate a suitable vein to administer the lethal drug.
Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been executed in the United States, compared with 1,663 men, meaning women account for roughly 1% of executions during that period.
