Tennessee officials were unable to complete the execution of Christa Gail Pike Wednesday night after administering two doses of pentobarbital, according to her attorneys, who said she remained alive and was taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution by ambulance.
Gov. Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive, independent review of what happened and halted Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026. The governor said carrying out a death sentence is one of the state’s most serious responsibilities and must be done legally, constitutionally and professionally.
Pike’s legal team said she was still breathing and audibly snoring after the drugs were administered. Media witnesses reported that the curtain separating observers from the execution chamber closed and reopened several times as the procedure unfolded. Her attorneys said she was later transported to a hospital for treatment, but they had not been told her condition late Wednesday.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol. The department did not immediately address allegations from Pike’s attorneys about problems establishing intravenous access, the condition of the drug or the availability of emergency medical care.
The execution had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday but was delayed during a rapid series of court rulings. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay shortly before the scheduled time. The U.S. Supreme Court later lifted that stay, allowing the state to proceed before the death warrant expired.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. She was 18 at the time of the crime and has been Tennessee’s only woman on death row. The planned execution would have been the first of a woman in Tennessee in more than two centuries.
Her lawyers filed emergency motions as the execution attempt continued, arguing that further efforts would expose her to unconstitutional pain. The legal consequences of the unsuccessful procedure, including whether the state can seek another execution date, were not immediately clear.
Officials had not released a detailed timeline of the procedure or a medical update on Pike early Thursday. The outside review ordered by Lee is expected to examine the execution team’s actions, the drug protocol and the state’s emergency response. No further Tennessee executions will take place this year while that review is underway.