Christa Pike Tennessee woman on death row still alive & snoring after 2 botched lethal injections fail to kill woman sentenced to death for 1996 murder after U.S Supreme Court overturned Federal Appeals court of stay of death sentence. Lawyers request medical attention as witnesses share dramatic details.
Have the Gods spoken…? A woman on death row in Tennessee is still alive after two botched doses of lethal injection, according to her lawyers.
Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed at a maximum security prison in Nashville at 10am on September 30, local time.
Her execution was delayed after a last-minute stay, with the Supreme Court ultimately clearing the way for it to go ahead a few hours later. Pike had her execution being successful would’ve been the first woman in Tennessee to die by execution.
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
Tennessee woman on death row survives two doses of lethal injection
Pike, 50, was strapped to a gurney just before 7:30 p.m. CDT after her stay of execution being overturned an hour earlier, The Tennessean reported.
Witnesses on site to watch the historic execution take place recalled Pike speaking in full sentences as she was set to be put to death.
‘My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing,’ WKRN reporter Tori Gessner heard Pike say.
Pike was injected with two syringes of the lethal drug, pentobarbital but remained alive — prompting her attorneys to quickly file an emergency stay in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Her legal team has now said she is still alive more than an hour after the execution drug was administered.
‘Ms. Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,’ the attorneys wrote.
UPDATE: Tennessee officials say Christa Pike’s execution went “very ragged, very poorly.”
Her attorney said a bit ago that Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.” pic.twitter.com/mXBwcygLMa
— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) October 1, 2026
Witnesses describe disarray amid botched lethal injections
Witnesses have been released from the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where the execution was held, ABC News reported.
Emergency service teams have been seen outside the prison and reportedly left the area with lights and sirens blaring.
Speaking to media, multiple witnesses from the execution chamber said ‘nothing we saw was normal’.
They noted the process was ‘abnormally long’, with the curtain being drawn at multiple points throughout the lethal injection being administered.
The failed execution led to Associated Press journalist Kim Chandler who had witnessed many executions expressing disbelief.
‘I would say that Pike appeared noticeably awake as the execution began.’ Adding, ‘The blinds were closed for the first time to the execution chamber at 7:46pm, they opened again at 7:49pm.
‘Her mouth fell open a few times and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times.
‘The curtain to the execution chamber closed for the final time at 8:06pm and she could be heard loudly snoring, clearly very alive, in the chamber until media witnesses were told to leave the area at about 8:53pm.’
Supreme court needs to invalidate the grand jury verdict in the case of Nolan Wells after its final ruling on Christa Pike execution.
Tennessee has proved to the world that no one is above the law. pic.twitter.com/5BTZbTswFC
— Divine7i (@divine7i) October 1, 2026
Lethal injection moral and practical dilemma
Prison officials have yet to speak and no time of death has been confirmed.
Pike’s attorney’s have filed an emergency petition to halt and stay the execution.
Court documents alleged Pike was administered two syringes of the execution drug pentobarbital, but was still alive.
‘Ms Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,’ they wrote.
Her attorneys spoke to local media, saying she needed ‘immediate medical care’.
Prior to her execution, Pike said in a letter to NBC she was not afraid to die.
‘I’m only nervous about the process,’ she wrote.
In one of her final requests, she asked for an all-female execution team.
Her lifelong history of sexual abuse and violence, according to court documents, left her terrified at the idea of being held down by men in her final moments.
Lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, has the highest rate of being botched.
In a 2022 annual review, the organisation found 35 per cent of the 20 execution attempts that year were ‘visibly problematic’.
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