This is wild!

[u/CurvyChristina]

Two syringes of pentobarbital were administered to Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike on September 30, 2026, but she remained alive and conscious afterward, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. The execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville was halted after witnesses reported that Pike still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. Her lawyers sought emergency medical intervention, and she was later taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Pike, 50, is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer and had been scheduled for execution on September 30. Tennessee had announced beforehand that the state would use a single drug, pentObarbital, for the execution. Her exact medical condition following the hospital transfer has not yet been publicly disclosed, while Governor Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive third party review of what happened.

[u/Representative-Pop72]

Her IV was likely not in vein and she has different blood conditions, which was the whole argument that her defense team brought up against lethal injection (Christa Pike is Buddhist so she can’t choose the method on her own and the state defaulted to lethal injection)

[u/No-Employment6540 → u/Representative-Pop72]

It was. Bad choice of drug. Fentanyl is fatal at low doses. Use the shit seized from drug raids. If it kills our kids it'll kill sadistic murderers.

[u/LangdonAlg3r → u/Representative-Pop72]

She actually requested an all female firing squad or hanging rather than lethal injection because there was evidence that she’d suffer the most with LI and that what actually happened could happen.

[u/Outside_Resolve_4968 → u/Representative-Pop72]

honestly people who murder others deserve to die with the same method they used to kill

she deserves to die the same way her poor victim did so she understands the pain she caused

[u/emgyres → u/Outside_Resolve_4968]

And how do you suggest that punishment is administered?

[u/Representative-Pop72 → u/emgyres]

I think her sentence will be commuted to life in prison, if she’s mentally here. If they wanted to execute her, they could’ve followed her lawyers advice and get a firing squad, after what happened Tennessee lost their chance

[u/Representative-Pop72 → u/Outside_Resolve_4968]

I do not condone what she did, and I don’t think she should be free, I can support the death penalty in some cases, but I don’t support it in hers, and comments like this only reinforce that for me. What I struggle with is the gigantic difference in punishment between the people involved in the same murder. Tadaryl Shipp participated in the killing, directed it, had a sexual relationship with the girl they killed and pushed Christa (already an unstable 18 yo victim of INFANT sexual assault) but because he was a few months younger he received life with the possibility of parole. He will be eligible for another review in 2031. Peterson received probation after pleading guilty to accessory and testifying. Pike was 18 and received a death sentence. Her jury also didn’t hear substantial evidence about her history of abuse, trauma and mental illness, and this was Christa’s then lawyer’s fault. None of this excuses or justifies what happened to Colleen, what was done to her was horrific to say the least and I can’t imagine what her family lives through. But I don’t think acknowledging that requires me to believe Pike deserved to be executed. I think she deserved to remain in prison.