US4 min(s) read
Graphic simulation shows what happens if a death row inmate doesn't die after injection as Christa Pike survives execution attempt
.jpg_xKEaT0?tr=cr-0.328.2730.3058,f-webp,q-70,w-100)
Death row inmate Christa Pike is still alive, following two failed execution attempts in Tennessee on Wednesday evening (September 30).
30 years on from being convicted for the murder of fellow student Colleen Slemmer, Pike would have been the first woman in over 200 years to be executed in Tennessee, before a couple of botched attempts at administering the lethal injection.
Pike's attorneys say she is being treated in a hospital, while a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Corrections confirmed she was ’transported to an off-site medical facility’.
Just minutes before her original execution time on Wednesday morning, she was granted a stay of execution, with the Supreme Court later stepping in and ruling that the killing could go ahead.
But both attempts were ultimately unsuccessful, with the mother of Pike's victim calling the procedure 'a mess', while one media witness admitted that 'none of it was normal.'
So, what happens next for the 50-year-old?
Simulation reveals what happens if execution fails
A YouTube video has explained everything that happens in the 24 hours leading up to an execution, in a 'strict and meticulously planned' protocol.
Body inspections and X-rays are carried out first on the day, to make sure there are no weapons or hidden objects.
Then, the inmate must wait in a cell near the execution chamber, with any attempts to take their own life stopped by guards.
Before the inmate's final meal, there's a chance to say goodbye to friends and family, before 'a chaplain and a psychologist provide emotional support.'
Witnesses are permitted into a room next to the chamber two hours before execution, with the inmate being strapped to the gurney an hour before execution.
It explains: "At the scheduled time, a sequence of drugs is administered. First, an anesthetic to induce unconsciousness, then a muscle paralytic, and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
"But there is a troubling question that hangs over this protocol. What should be done if for some reason the condemned does not completely die after the injection?"
The answer is that if a death penalty execution fails, the state will immediately halt the procedure and administer emergency medical care to the inmate.
State officials and legal teams will then launch a wide-scale investigation into the failure.
This isn't the first execution to fail this year, as on May 21, 2026, the state of Tennessee administered the lethal injection to inmate Tony Carruthers, and he is still alive.
Media witnesses recall failed execution attempts
According to WPLN reporter Catherine Sweeney, Pike was 'still breathing' after two rounds of the lethal injection were administered, calling it 'very ragged'.
She told CNN: "She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point.
"She said there was a spot that was burning and hurting, and asked if that was normal - none of it was normal."
"When the curtains were open, she was kind of inconsistently going in and out of snores and silence," WKRN Anchor Tori Gessner explained.
She went on: "When the curtains closed for the final time at 8:05, we could consistently hear her snoring, and then it kind of developed into a snore-squeak, and then a snore; even at 8:53 when the microphone was cut off, we could still hear snoring."
Damon Lawrence, a news reporter for Roane County, said that she delivered her last words before the failed execution attempts.
"The warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words. She said, 'I do.' He told her to proceed. She said, 'I just want to say that I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love,'" he explained.
Lawrence recalled: "She said she loves the people who are angry with her, just as much as she loves the people who are on her side. She said, 'I'm at peace and I'm ready to go.'"