Christa Pike Hospitalized After Botched Execution

Christa Gail Pike, Tennessee's first woman on death row in over 200 years, is currently receiving life-saving treatment after her execution attempt went wrong. The 50-year-old inmate's execution took place on Wednesday night, September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville following a last-minute court battle that was cleared by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Pike was scheduled to be executed for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. According to The Tennesseean, the execution at the Tennessee Department of Correction began at approximately 8:48 p.m. CT after being delayed for hours. Officials appeared to administer two doses of pentobarbital, after which witnesses reported hearing Pike snoring loudly behind the curtain while emergency vehicles arrived at and left the prison.