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Tennessee halted the execution of death-row inmate Christa Pike after two doses of a lethal-injection drug failed to end her life.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility after the execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The department said prison officials followed the state’s established execution protocol.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her execution had been scheduled to make her the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Witnesses said Pike remained alive after the first and second injections, leading officials to stop the procedure and arrange for her medical transfer.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review of the failed execution and suspended further executions in the state for the remainder of 2026. The cause of the failed execution remains under investigation.
