Tennessee woman survives lethal injections, remains in critical condition

A woman who has spent more than three decades on death row is in critical condition after surviving Tennessee’s Sept. 30 attempt to execute her by lethal injection, according to reports.

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, received two doses of pentobarbital, the maximum allowed under the state’s execution protocol, WSMV, an NBC affiliate, reported Oct. 1.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered an outside review of the failed execution and put further executions on hold, The Washington Post reported. He said he was “highly disappointed” by what transpired.

The state confirmed that Pike was hospitalized and receiving medical care, CBS News reported. Her attorneys said Oct. 1 that she was in critical condition and receiving “life-saving medical care,” according to WSMV, but noted they had not seen or spoken with her since she was hospitalized.

CBS News reported that an emergency motion filed by her attorneys said Pike still had a heartbeat after receiving both doses. Media witnesses reported hearing her snoring until they were asked to leave, according to the outlet.

Pike was sentenced to death for her role in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student. Pike was 18 at the time. CBS News reported that fellow students said she later bragged about the killing, telling one that she had kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

In her clemency petition, she expressed remorse: “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. 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. “Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.”

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed Sept. 30, overturning a lower court’s order temporarily blocking it, according to CBS News.

The attempted execution follows a June 2026 motion from Pike’s attorneys arguing that the procedure would be unconstitutional given what they described as her “unique physical, medical, and psychological conditions,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Her attorneys argued that her small veins and thrombocytosis, a blood disorder, could complicate placement of an intravenous line and increase the risk of severe suffering, the center said.

They also argued that her history of childhood sexual violence and post-traumatic stress disorder could make removal from her cell and restraint by an all-male execution team a source of further “psychological harm.”

The state disputed those concerns during an August hearing, arguing that Pike’s veins were accessible, her blood condition posed little clotting risk, and pentobarbital would cause unconsciousness before she could experience serious pain, the center explained.

According to WSMV, following the failed attempt, Pike’s defense team described the procedure as “cruel” and “torturous” and called on Lee to commute her sentence.

This is a developing story.