Gov. Bill Lee addresses reporters following the failed execution of Christa Pike, Oct. 1, 2026

Gov. Bill Lee addresses reporters following the failed execution of Christa Pike, Oct. 1, 2026.

 Photo: Julianne Akers

Questions continue to swirl around Tennessee’s multiple failed attempts to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection on Wednesday — the second botched execution by the state this year.

Fifty-year-old Pike — the only woman on death row in Tennessee, who was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer — was transported to a hospital Wednesday evening after surviving two doses of pentobarbital, the state’s lethal injection drug. She remains hospitalized as of Thursday afternoon. A last-minute appeals court ruling Wednesday morning temporarily halted the execution. What followed was nearly 12 hours of back-and-forth between courts and legal representatives before the U.S. Supreme Court permitted the execution to move forward.