Tennessee suspends all executions after Christa Pike survives two lethal injection doses and remains on a ventilator
From the Newshound archive · first published 3 October 2026.
Christa Pike, whose clemency petition was rejected by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday in the state's first female execution in over 200 years.Colleen Slemmer, whose mother May Martinez travelled to Nashville to witness Pike's execution and described the evening as "a mess.
Christa Pike, 50, remains unconscious on a ventilator at a Nashville hospital following Tennessee's botched execution attempt on Wednesday. Executioners administered two full doses of pentobarbital, neither of which proved fatal. Her attorneys contend the drug dispersed into surrounding tissue rather than entering her bloodstream because her veins had collapsed — a risk they had alerted the state to months before the procedure. Governor Bill Lee has called for an independent review and suspended all executions in Tennessee through the end of the year.
Over the course of the hour-long procedure, Pike's lawyers watched at least seven needles go into her arm; one was withdrawn visibly bent at a 90-degree angle.
Her legal team has submitted an emergency court motion requiring Tennessee to preserve all evidence from the execution attempt, and continues to seek commutation of her death sentence.
Pike was convicted in 1996 for the 1995 torture killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19 — according to former Knoxville police chief Phil Keith, investigators are 'still haunted' by the 'satanic' crime scene.
