A veteran media witness who has covered five previous executions in Tennessee said nothing about Wednesday night’s attempt to put Christa Pike to death was normal. Pike, 50, remained clearly alive and breathing after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, and an ambulance later left Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville with its sirens on.
“I’ve witnessed, I believe, 5 executions in Tennessee. Nothing about today was normal, typical at all,” the witness said. “She was clearly still alive. She was clearly still breathing.”Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture-murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Court records show Slemmer endured a 30-to-45-minute attack in which she was beaten and repeatedly cut with a box cutter and meat cleaver before her head was bashed with a rock or piece of asphalt. A pentagram was carved into her body while she was still alive. Pike was 18 at the time.
The execution process itself stretched more than two hours and was marked by repeated curtain closures that blocked witnesses’ view. Witnesses reported Pike complaining that her arm felt “like it’s about to burst open.” After the second dose, she was heard snoring loudly with her mouth open. Officials closed the curtains, then reopened them, then closed them again. Witnesses said they could still hear her breathing after the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. and they were escorted out.
“A lot of this execution, or attempted execution, happened when we could not see what was going on,” one witness said.
Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way after a last-minute stay by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Gov. Bill Lee had already denied clemency.
After the failed attempt, Lee ordered a comprehensive third-party review of the state’s lethal-injection protocol and paused remaining executions scheduled for 2026. “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Lee said.
Pike was transported by ambulance for medical care. Her condition was not immediately released. Her attorneys filed emergency motions claiming she had not lost consciousness and was still snoring after the drugs were administered.
Tennessee Department of Correction officials offered no immediate public explanation for why the two doses of pentobarbital failed to complete the execution.
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