{"id":362678,"date":"2026-10-02T07:54:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362678\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:54:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:54:40","slug":"christa-pikes-question-after-failed-execution-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362678\/","title":{"rendered":"Christa Pike’s question after failed execution: witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media witnesses to the botched execution of Christa Pike<\/a> described how the satanist killer lifted her head and asked if the pain was normal after a second round of the lethal drug cocktail was administered.<\/p>\n

Pike, who would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee<\/a> in more than 200 years, somehow survived the double dose of the highly potent sedative, Pentobarbital, Wednesday \u2013 with reporters describing how the failed execution played out unlike anything they had ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end, it was very ragged, 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,\u201d Catherine Sweeney of WPLN said at a press briefing after the execution was put on hold.<\/p>\n

Christa Pike survived the double dose of Pentobarbital during her botched execution. TDOC \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on murderer Christa Pike, the first death row inmate in history to survive lethal injection<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that was normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike, 50, was strapped to a gurney in the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution\u2019s death chamber just before 7:30 p.m. CDT an hour after her stay of execution was overturned<\/a> by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they told us to leave at 8:53 Christa Pike was still breathing. They did two separate rounds of pentobarbital \u2013 which I\u2019ve never seen before \u2013 the protocol does say that they should do a second round if the person is still alive,\u201d Sweeney recounted. <\/p>\n

\u201cI covered all of the executions last year and most of the ones this year, we haven\u2019t seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went through two rounds and she was still breathing at the end, it was very ragged,\u201d Catherine Sweeney of WPLN recounted at a press briefing after the failed execution.<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s execution protocol calls for a second set of syringes to be administered \u201cif the inmate is not deceased\u201d after the first injection. However, it does not specify what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.<\/p>\n

Critics of the death penalty condemned the Tennessee Department of Corrections\u2019 use of lethal injections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of Tennessee has shown the world it cannot be trusted to implement capital punishment in a way that preserves human dignity and the rule of law. This has to stop now,\u201d Laura Porter, executive director of the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said in a statement to USA Today<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI covered all of the executions last year and most of the ones this year, we haven\u2019t seen anything like it,\u201d Sweeney continued. AP Photo\/George Walker IV<\/p>\n

Other witnesses on site at the Nashville prison to watch the historic execution take place<\/a> recalled Pike complaining about \u201cthrobbing\u201d in her arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy arm feels like it\u2019s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing,\u201d WKRN reporter Tori Gessner heard Pike say.<\/p>\n

The killer was taken to a nearby hospital, where her lawyers said she was \u201cbeing provided life-saving measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death row inmate Christa Pike enters a Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, seen in court on Dec. 4, 2007. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Her condition was unclear as of Thursday morning; however, a doctor who was retained by Pike\u2019s legal team as a medical expert said she likely now has a brain injury as a result.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury,\u201d Dr Joel Zivot, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her last words before she was set to die, the convicted killer said she was going to leave this world the same way she spent most of her life: \u201cin love,\u201d Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler heard her say.<\/p>\n

AP reporter Kimberly Chandler recounts the moments before the execution of Christa Pike was halted at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. AP Photo\/George Walker IV<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she had love for the people who were out here hating on her,\u201d Chandler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe closed her statement with saying, \u2018I\u2019m at peace. I\u2019m ready to be free.\u2019 Then something about celebrating her freedom, and then she closed with, \u2018This is a happy day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he has ordered \u201ca comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred\u201d and halted the remaining scheduled execution set for this year.<\/p>\n

Media witnesses leave Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. AP Photo\/George Walker IV<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State\u2019s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pike was on death row<\/a> for a heinous 1995 crime in which she lured a romantic rival into a wooded area and tortured her with a box cutter \u2013 carving a pentagram into her chest \u2013 before smashing her head with a piece of asphalt, claiming a piece of the victim\u2019s skull as a souvenir.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Media witnesses to the botched execution of Christa Pike described how the satanist killer lifted her head and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[134683,2440,238,9,11,10,287,58],"class_list":["post-362678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-christa-pike","tag-executions","tag-murders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-tennessee","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}