NASHVILLE, TN. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has halted the state’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026 after officials were unable to complete the execution of death row inmate Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday.
Pike, 50, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. The execution would have been Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years.
According to reports from The Associated Press cited by FOX, an appeals court temporarily stopped Pike’s execution about an hour before its scheduled start. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned that stay, allowing the state to proceed.
Pike’s attorneys said in court filings that officials administered two doses of pentobarbital during the execution attempt. Media witnesses reported that Pike remained alive after the second dose and could be heard breathing or snoring before the viewing area was closed. She was later transported from the prison by ambulance for hospital treatment. Her condition was not immediately disclosed.
Following the incident, Lee ordered an independent third-party review of the execution process and announced that Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution for this year would not proceed.
The Tennessee Department of Correction maintained that staff followed the state’s established execution protocol. Under that protocol, a second set of lethal injection drugs can be administered if an inmate remains alive after the first. The protocol reportedly does not specify what should happen if the person remains alive following the second administration.
Wednesday’s incident marked the second time this year that Tennessee officials were unable to carry out a scheduled execution. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after officials were unable to establish an IV line following repeated attempts.
Pike was sentenced to death for Slemmer’s 1995 killing. Prosecutors said Pike and others lured Slemmer to a wooded area in Knoxville, where she was beaten and stabbed. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime.
Pike’s attorneys had sought to have her sentence commuted to life in prison without parole, but Lee denied her clemency request before the scheduled execution.
The governor’s review is expected to examine what occurred during Wednesday’s execution attempt before Tennessee resumes additional executions.
Source: FOX Local reporting based on information from The Associated Press and Reuters.
