Christa Pike is reportedly unconscious after she survived an execution attempt at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. Pike survived despite being given two doses of lethal injections on Wednesday, September 30. Furthermore, the failed execution is the second failed attempt in Tennessee this year — and both were overseen by the same physician.
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Christa Pike Unconscious Following Botched Execution
A disturbing health update reveals that Christa Pike is unconscious after surviving an execution attempt on Wednesday. Not only that, but the death row inmate is on a ventilator and can’t breathe on her own, according to TMZ.
Pike survived despite receiving two lethal injections of the lethal drug pentobarbital, per NBC News. Her attorneys argued that she had a vein condition known as thrombocytosis, which they argued would make finding a vein to give her the drug difficult. They argued Pike should be executed in another manner because of her condition, but the state proceeded with the execution, per PBS.
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“My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” she reportedly told WKRN reporter Tori Gessner. “Does this happen like that?”
After being given two lethal doses, Pike was still alive, breathing, and snoring, and she was taken by an ambulance to a hospital.
Tennessee Halts Executions After Pike Survives Botched Attempt
The Shade Room reported that Pike’s execution prompted all executions to cease in the state pending an investigation. The same physician who oversaw the execution attempt, Dr. Mark Fowler, also oversaw another failed attempt earlier this year at the same prison.
The State of Tennessee attempted to execute another inmate, Tony Carruthers, back in May 2026. The staff spent an hour trying to locate a vein to administer the lethal injections, per WVLT. Staffers stuck needles in Carruthers’ arms and feet before a doctor tried to insert an IV through his collarbone. Carruthers reportedly screamed in pain as the puncture wounds bled, according to NPR.
Pike’s attorneys, Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey, issued a statement following the attempt on the 50-year-old.
“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” reads the statement. “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
After the botched attempt, the Tennessee Department of Corrections claimed that execution protocols have “consistently been effective.”
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” reads the statement. “The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
Pike Was On Death Row For Murder
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Slemmer, 19, and Pike were both members of the Jobs Corps education program in Knoxville, Tennessee. The then-18-year-old, her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and acquaintance Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer to the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. Pike and Shipp beat, stabbed and tortured Slemmer as Peterson acted as a look-out. Furthermore, they used a box cutter to draw a pentagram on Slemmer’s forehead and chest, per ABC4 News. The killers also took a piece of her skull as a “souvenir.”
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, was at the botched execution, according to PEOPLE.
“I stood in front of that window and I watched her very, very carefully,” Martinez said. “I did not take my eyes off of her. I wanted her to remember who Colleen was and what they’ve done and never forget that thought, no matter where she goes.
Martinez told NBC News of the execution attempt, “They f*cked up.”
“They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die…. It was a mess,” she said. “They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left…. We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner, and he said that it didn’t work…. and she’s on her way to the hospital…. They f*cked up.”
