Christa Pike, a death row inmate in the U.S. state of Tennessee, survived an attempt to execute her by lethal injection despite receiving two doses of the drug used in the state’s execution protocol.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled to die on Wednesday for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
According to the Associated Press, Pike remained alive after the lethal drugs were administered and was eventually taken by ambulance to a hospital. Her attorneys said on Thursday that she was in critical condition and receiving lifesaving medical care.
The execution had already been delayed for several hours after a federal appeals court temporarily halted it. The U.S. Supreme Court later cleared the way for Tennessee officials to proceed.
Media witnesses reported that Pike remained conscious for part of the procedure, complained of pain in her arm and continued breathing after the injections. Officials ultimately halted the execution.
Tennessee officials said they followed the state’s approved execution protocol but have not yet explained what went wrong. Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the incident and halted the remaining scheduled executions in Tennessee for the rest of 2026.
Pike’s lawyers and death-penalty advocates had previously opposed her execution, pointing to circumstances surrounding her youth at the time of the crime and her history of childhood abuse and mental health problems. Pike was 18 when she committed the murder.
The failed execution was Tennessee’s second unsuccessful lethal-injection attempt this year. The earlier attempt in May also failed after prison officials were unable to establish an intravenous line.
The case has drawn renewed attention to Tennessee’s execution procedures and the use of lethal injection, while authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding the failed attempt.