Christa Pike Survives Two Lethal Injection Doses as Tennessee Halts Executions After Unprecedented Failure

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee's only woman on death row survived two doses of lethal injection drugs Wednesday night and was taken to a hospital, prompting Gov. Bill Lee to call off the state's remaining execution for the year and order an independent review of what went wrong.

Christa Gail Pike, 50, was alive and snoring loudly after receiving two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, her attorneys said in court filings late Wednesday. She was then taken by ambulance to an outside medical facility.

Pike had been scheduled to die for the 1995 torture killing of a fellow Job Corps student in Knoxville. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

A death penalty expert described the outcome as unprecedented.

What happened in the execution chamber

Pike's execution was originally set for 10 a.m. Wednesday but was delayed after a federal appeals court issued a last-minute stay. The U.S. Supreme Court lifted that stay just before 7 p.m., clearing the way for the state to proceed.

Witnesses said Pike remained awake after the first dose was administered. At one point, she raised her head and asked prison officials whether her arm was supposed to feel the way it did. It was not clear what she meant.

By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital had been given. Tennessee's protocol calls for two syringes of 50 milliliters of the drug, and Pike received both.

After the curtain to the execution chamber was closed, a media witness said Pike could be heard "snoring and making very loud breathing sounds for almost an hour." The microphone in the chamber was cut off at 8:53 p.m.

Her attorneys filed an emergency motion seeking to halt the execution, saying she was "still alive and snoring" after receiving the drugs. They said she never lost consciousness and continued breathing with a steady heartbeat.

Pike's execution warrant expired at midnight. Her condition was not disclosed.

State says it followed protocol

The Tennessee Department of Correction said its staff "followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office." The department said Pike had been transported to an off-site medical facility.

The agency did not explain why the drugs failed to kill her or whether they entered her bloodstream as intended. Tennessee's protocol does not address what should happen if a prisoner remains alive after both doses are given.

Governor orders review

Lee, a Republican, announced early Thursday that he had ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and said the state's remaining scheduled execution would not take place this year.

"Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," Lee said in a statement.

Lee had denied Pike's request for clemency on Monday.

'Singular and unparalleled'

Death penalty experts said Pike's survival appeared to be without precedent in modern American executions.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described what Pike endured as "singular and unparalleled." She said seven other people have survived execution attempts after teams failed to access a vein to deliver lethal injection drugs, but no one has remained alive after actually receiving the drugs used in such executions.

Second failed execution this year

Wednesday's events marked the second time this year that Tennessee was unable to complete an execution.

In May, officials could not carry out the execution of Tony Carruthers after they were unable to establish a required backup intravenous line despite repeated attempts. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

The state has faced repeated scrutiny over its execution procedures. In 2022, Lee halted the execution of Oscar Smith and paused all executions for the rest of that year after the state acknowledged it had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested. An independent review followed, and Tennessee later switched from a three-drug method to a single-drug pentobarbital protocol.

Pike had challenged that protocol in court, arguing that her medical conditions, including a blood disorder, made it likely her execution would cause unnecessary pain and suffering.

The crime

Pike was 18 when she and two others lured Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps program for troubled youth, into the woods in January 1995. Prosecutors said they tortured and killed her. Pike was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996.

She was the last person sent to Tennessee's death row for a crime committed at age 18, the youngest age at which a person can receive a death sentence.

Pike did not deny killing Slemmer. Her attorneys argued she had endured severe abuse and trauma as a child and had changed during her decades in prison.

"It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done," Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.

For Slemmer's family, the failed execution meant another night without the finality they have sought for more than three decades.

It remains unclear whether or when Tennessee could attempt to execute Pike again. Under state law, problems with one method of execution do not eliminate a death sentence, meaning any new attempt would likely trigger further legal battles over how and under what conditions the state could proceed.

A new execution date would have to be set by the Tennessee Supreme Court. With Lee's pause in place and an independent review underway, no further executions are expected in the state this year.

Officials have not said what injuries, if any, Pike suffered or what medical treatment she received after leaving the prison.