Christa Pike Survives Execution Attempt — Rushed to the Hospital

Christa Pike was expected to leave Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in a hearse.
Instead, she left in an ambulance.

Tennessee attempted to execute the 50-year-old by lethal injection for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
Officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike remained alive.

Witnesses reported that Pike continued breathing after the drugs were administered.
They also described repeated sounds resembling snoring during the failed execution.
Her attorneys called for the procedure to be stopped and for emergency medical treatment.

Shortly after 9 p.m., emergency vehicles arrived at Riverbend.
Pike was transported to a hospital, where her attorneys later confirmed that she was alive and receiving critical medical care.
Her long-term prognosis remained uncertain.

Tennessee officials had not publicly established exactly why the lethal injection failed.
The Department of Correction said the state’s established protocol had been followed.
Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the incident.
The state also halted Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026.

Pike would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.
Instead, the execution attempt ended with an ambulance carrying her away from the prison.

What was expected to be the final chapter of a case spanning more than three decades has now become an unprecedented new chapter.
Pike remains alive, Slemmer’s family continues to await resolution, and Tennessee now faces serious questions about what happened inside the execution chamber.