Attorneys for Christa Pike said Wednesday night that Tennessee executioners administered two syringes of pentobarbital and that she was still alive and snoring inside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Media witnesses were already at a podium speaking at the press conference when an ambulance and other first responders pulled up in front of the prison.
Pike received medical care after the botched execution attempt, according to a court filing obtained by The Tennessean.
BREAKING: Christa Pike is on her way to the hospital and receiving medical care.
“As a supplemental response, the respondent reports that the petitioner is being transported to a hospital and is receiving medical care.” pic.twitter.com/Z9xdo5R4cU
— Lauren Conlin (@conlin_lauren) October 1, 2026
Just before midnight, Pike’s legal team issued a statement confirming that she had been transported to a nearby hospital and was being treated, but added, “We have not been informed of her condition.”
Statement from Christa Pike attorneys: https://t.co/LBR848QdkS pic.twitter.com/0VVCCCmd0Y
— Kelly Avellino (@KellyAvellino) October 1, 2026
The report states:
Attorneys for Christa Pike filed an emergency motion to stay her execution after prison officials administered two doses of deadly pentobarbital and it didn’t stop her heart.
A federal judge ruled that motion is moot.
“Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,” Pike’s attorney said in the motion.
District Judge Clifton L. Corker issued the ruling.
“At a conference call with counsel for all parties, the state represented that medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion,” Corker wrote. “This is the complete order of the court.”
Reporters were ordered out of the witness room before anyone announced a time of death, so it is unclear if she is alive or dead.
No Tennessee Department of Correction officials have spoken since the botched execution attempt.
Witnesses said she was alive for over an hour and was still breathing when they were ordered out of the room.
WATCH:
The Christa Pike execution witnesses press conference was just interrupted by ambulances arriving. It was botched. She seems to still be alive after two lethal doses.
The execution team was supposed to be all women, not sure if that ended up being the case. pic.twitter.com/0FJK6s1iD4
— Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) October 1, 2026
Tori Gessner, a journalist at WKRN who has witnessed multiple executions, said during the press conference, “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.”
Gessner quoted Pike as saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.”
Other witnesses said she looked around and asked whether the pain at he injection site was normal.
The Tennessean reports:
The blinds closed at 7:46 p.m. Witnesses said they could still hear her breathing when the blinds were closed.
Just 3 minutes later, the blinds were opened again. Pike was still breathing and began snoring, witnesses said.
The blinds closed again at 8:05 p.m. Witnesses said the breathing continued while the microphone was still on. Prison officials removed the witnesses from the room at 8:53 p.m. When the microphone cut off, witnesses could still hear her breathing.
Kelly Gleason, one of Pike’s lawyers, said she got the news from Randy Spivey, another attorney who had been in the chamber and stepped out to call, according to reports from The Tennessean.
“She’s alive and snoring,” Gleason said. She added that Pike needed immediate medical care.
One of the attorneys was driving an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court after the drugs had been administered.
State protocol allows a second set of backup drugs five minutes after the first.
The protocol does not say what happens if those fail.
The death warrant runs out at midnight.
Pike was originally set to be executed at 10 a.m.
Witnesses had gathered, but then the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 stay about an hour before the injection, saying it needed time to weigh whether childhood rape and sexual abuse were fully considered at sentencing.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift it.
The high court vacated the stay just before 6 p.m. CT in a 6-3 order and said the execution could proceed before midnight.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Sotomayor wrote that the majority was clearing the way before it could properly consider pending challenges.
Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
In January 1995, when she was 18, she and two other Job Corps students lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer onto the University of Tennessee agriculture campus in Knoxville.
Slemmer was beaten and cut to death. She had been slashed hundreds of times, and a pentagram was carved into her body.
Pike kept a piece of her skull.
Tadaryl Shipp, then 17, received a life sentence.
Shadolla Peterson testified and got probation.
Pike was meant to be the first woman Tennessee has executed in more than 200 years.
Gov. Bill Lee denied clemency Monday. “After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene.”
May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, came from Jacksonville to watch. She has called Pike’s mercy bid “complete baloney” and said she needs to see Pike gone so she does not fear she will “pop up somewhere.”
Pike asked for an all-female execution team, arguing that being strapped down and injected by men would make her relive childhood rapes and PTSD.
Tennessee Plans All-Female Lethal Injection Team at Request of State’s First Woman Being Executed in 200 Years
Tennessee corrections officials said they would try to use female officers to move her from the women’s prison and that an all-female team “may” be assigned.
Special Master Mark Ward noted plans to replace male staff overseeing her ahead of the execution with female staff. The state did not publicly guarantee that every person in the chamber tonight would be a woman.
Pike declined a last meal. She wrote that she was at peace and “only nervous about the process.”
As of the Tennessean’s 9:24 p.m. CT update, no official time of death had been announced.
Watch the press conference here, it was ongoing at time of publishing:
The Gateway Pundit will continue to provide updates as the situation unfolds.
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