Christa Pike still unconscious on a ventilator days after Tennessee's failed execution

Still trending: first covered on Wednesday, 30 September 2026.

This is a follow-up to our September 30 story. The reason for the interest has not changed: Tennessee's attempt to execute Pike went wrong. What is new is the news about her condition, and how uncertain things are now.

Pike survived the lethal injection on Wednesday night and was taken to hospital. Governor Bill Lee then halted the state's one remaining execution this year. Two days later her attorneys said she was unconscious and on a ventilator. CNN reported that both her medical and legal future remain 'remarkably unclear'. Some reports added details from the execution chamber, including that a bent needle had to be removed.

By the weekend, the Associated Press reported that Pike's lawyer said she still had not regained consciousness. Her team said it may be several more days before they know whether she can recover. They also said they may never learn how much she was aware of, or how much pain she felt, during the procedure. In an emergency court filing, her attorneys had written that she 'has not lost consciousness'. Wikipedia editors have been updating that part of the article as her condition changes.

Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into the woods near the University of Tennessee campus, where they tortured and killed her. She was sentenced to death at 20, which makes her one of the youngest women sentenced to death in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. If executed, she would be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her page had about 799,000 views on October 3. That is well below the 4.3 million on October 1, but still about 26 times its normal daily traffic. Nine in ten views came from phones.