Christa Pike Survives Two Pentobarbital Doses in Failed Tennessee Execution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her Wednesday night after prison officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, the lethal-injection drug used under the state’s execution protocol.

Pike, 50, remained alive after both doses were administered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She was eventually taken from the prison by ambulance to an off-site hospital for medical treatment.

On Thursday, Pike’s attorneys said she was in critical condition and receiving lifesaving medical care. Attorney Randy Spivey said the legal team did not yet know her prognosis but confirmed that she remained alive.

Two Doses Failed to End the Execution

According to court filings and witnesses, the execution began Wednesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to proceed.

Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital. Yet witnesses reported that she continued breathing and later could be heard snoring. Her attorneys also said she complained of significant pain in her arm during the procedure.

The circumstances surrounding the failed execution remain under investigation.

Pike’s attorneys have raised concerns about difficulties accessing her veins and said she had a lifelong blood disorder that had previously made blood draws difficult. They suggested that the execution drugs may not have entered her bloodstream properly, although the cause of the failure has not been officially established.

Tennessee officials have not publicly provided a detailed explanation for why the procedure failed.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed the state’s established execution protocol and that the protocol did not allow additional procedures beyond those carried out. The department confirmed that Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility.

Pike Was Sentenced to Death for a 1995 Murder

Pike was sentenced to death for the January 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow participant in the Knoxville Job Corps program.

Pike was 18 when Slemmer was killed. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted in connection with the murder.

Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Instead, she left the prison in an ambulance rather than being pronounced dead in the execution chamber.

Tennessee Suspends Executions

The failed execution has already triggered a broader review.

Gov. Bill Lee announced that Tennessee would suspend its remaining executions for the rest of 2026 and ordered a comprehensive third-party review of what happened during Pike’s execution attempt.

The development comes only months after Tennessee aborted another execution after officials were unable to establish an intravenous line.

For now, Pike remains alive and hospitalized, while questions surrounding the failed lethal injection remain unanswered.

Her death sentence has not been overturned by the failed execution. What happens next — legally and medically — remains uncertain as Tennessee investigates how two doses of pentobarbital failed to carry out the sentence.