Tennessee's Botched Execution of Christa Pike Leaves Her Hospitalized, Possibly Brain-Damaged

Tennessee's first attempt in more than 200 years to execute a woman went catastrophically wrong Wednesday night: death-row inmate Christa Pike survived two failed lethal-injection attempts, was rushed to a hospital still alive, and may now have brain damage — prompting Gov. Bill Lee to suspend every execution left on the state's calendar for 2026.

Why it matters: It's one of the most visible botched executions in recent U.S. history, reviving scrutiny of lethal-injection protocols nationwide and fueling a renewed push from Pike's attorneys to have her death sentence commuted to life without parole. Fox News has background on the three-decade-old case that made her the only woman on Tennessee's death row.

Driving the news:

Pike, convicted in 1996 of torturing and murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995 — cutting her throat with a box cutter, striking her with a cleaver, carving a pentagram into her chest, crushing her skull with a piece of asphalt, and keeping a fragment of the victim's skull as a trophy — was scheduled to die by lethal injection the morning of Sept. 30.
A divided 6th Circuit panel voted 2-1 to stay the execution less than two hours before it was set to happen; the stay was lifted later that day and Tennessee carried out the execution that evening instead, Townhall reported.
Executioners spent roughly an hour trying to establish a working IV line — using seven needles in Pike's left arm alone — before administering two unsuccessful doses of pentobarbital, according to her attorney Randy Spivey, per Townhall.
Witnesses said Pike remained conscious for more than 40 minutes after the injections, was heard saying “My arm feels like it's about to burst open,” and was seen snoring and kicking her feet hard enough to displace the sheets as staff closed the execution curtains twice, Townhall's on-scene account says.
She was transported to a hospital still alive; her legal team says the botched IV attempts may have left her with brain damage, skin necrosis, permanent scarring, nerve damage and compartment syndrome.

By the numbers:

1 hour — how long it took staff to establish a working IV line, per Pike's attorney.
7 — needles used in Pike's left arm alone during that process.
2 — lethal-injection doses administered, both unsuccessful.
40+ minutes — how long Pike reportedly stayed conscious after the injections.
206 years — how long it had been since Tennessee last executed a woman, in 1820; Pike would have been only the fourth woman the state has ever put to death.

What they're saying: “We should find out what happened and make those changes necessary,” Gov. Bill Lee said in ordering a third-party review and halting every other execution left on Tennessee's 2026 calendar. Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had a blunter take on the spectacle, telling reporters, “It was a mess,” TMZ reported.

The other side: Slemmer's family isn't on board with the sympathy the botched execution has generated for Pike. Martinez and relatives have asked the public to keep its attention on Colleen, the 19-year-old Pike tortured and murdered three decades ago, rather than on the convicted killer's ordeal in the death chamber.

What's next:

Every other execution on Tennessee's 2026 calendar is on hold until Gov. Lee's third-party review of what went wrong is complete.
Pike's attorneys are pushing to have her death sentence commuted to life without parole, arguing a second execution attempt after Wednesday's would be unconstitutional.

The bottom line: A rare, highly public failed execution has frozen capital punishment in Tennessee indefinitely and handed death-penalty opponents a fresh case study — even as the family of the woman Pike killed in 1995 pushes back on a narrative they feel has shifted sympathy toward their daughter's killer.

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Tennessee's Botched Execution of Christa Pike Leaves Her Hospitalized, Possibly Brain-Damaged

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