Tennessee officials were unable to complete the execution of death row inmate Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, after media witnesses reported that she appeared to receive two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital but remained alive.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled to die at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Had the execution been completed, Pike would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in at least 200 years.
According to Associated Press witnesses, prison officials closed the curtain to the media viewing room at 7:46 p.m. and reopened it three minutes later. Pike could then be heard loudly snoring. The curtain was closed again at 8:06 p.m., but witnesses continued hearing her snore until the microphone was switched off at about 8:53 p.m. � AP News Witnesses said officials appeared to administer two doses of pentobarbital during the attempted execution. Emergency vehicles were later seen entering and leaving the prison. The Tennessee Department of Correction did not immediately explain what had gone wrong, and Pike’s precise medical condition was unclear in the immediate aftermath.
Pike’s attorneys filed emergency motions seeking to stop any further attempt to execute her, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that she was experiencing what they described as “unnecessary agony.” They also asked that prison officials begin lifesaving medical measures. � AP News The dramatic development followed hours of legal uncertainty. A three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had voted 2-1 to temporarily halt the execution so it could consider claims that evidence of Pike’s childhood sexual abuse had not been adequately considered during sentencing. Tennessee appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently lifted the stay, allowing the state to proceed. � AP News +1 Pike was 18 when Slemmer was killed in January 1995. Prosecutors said Pike, her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and another companion lured Slemmer, who attended the same Knoxville Job Corps centre, to a wooded area where she was beaten and stabbed. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Pike’s lawyers had also sought clemency, citing her age when the crime occurred, childhood trauma and diagnoses including bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied the clemency request earlier in the week.
The attempted execution is the second time in 2026 that Tennessee has been unable to carry out a scheduled execution. In May, officials called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after executioners were unable to establish an intravenous line for more than an hour.
As of the latest reports Wednesday night, Pike remained alive, while authorities had not publicly detailed what caused the execution procedure to fail or what would happen next. If the execution cannot be carried out before the existing death warrant expires, Tennessee would need to seek a new warrant from the state Supreme Court.
