A failed execution attempt involving Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike has triggered an investigation into the state’s lethal injection procedures after Pike remained alive despite receiving two doses of the execution drug.

Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

The execution was expected to make Pike the first woman put to death by Tennessee in more than two centuries. Instead, the procedure ended with Pike being transported from the prison to an outside medical facility after the state was unable to complete the execution successfully. Tennessee’s execution protocol called for the use of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate administered intravenously.

According to accounts from witnesses and subsequent court filings from Pike’s attorneys, officials administered two doses during the procedure. Pike nevertheless continued breathing and remained alive well after the execution process had begun.

Witnesses reported that Pike remained responsive during portions of the procedure and complained of pain in her arms. She was also heard making breathing and snoring-like sounds after the drugs had been administered. Eventually, the death chamber curtain was closed.

Emergency vehicles later arrived at the prison, and Pike was transported to a medical facility.

The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a statement later that night saying officials had followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol. The department also said the protocol did not authorize additional procedures beyond those that had already been attempted.

“Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility,” the department stated. Tennessee State GovernmentIn court filings made after the failed execution, Pike’s attorneys provided a more detailed account of her medical condition.

They said she had been unconscious and placed on a ventilator following the procedure. They also described significant swelling, blistering and apparent burns on her arms.

Her lawyers have argued that the injuries may indicate that at least some of the pentobarbital failed to enter her bloodstream properly and instead leaked into surrounding tissue.

The precise cause of the failure has not yet been established by an independent investigation.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot, who has been retained by Pike’s defense team, has suggested that the physical injuries described by her attorneys are consistent with possible intravenous infiltration, meaning the medication entered tissue instead of flowing properly through a vein.