{"id":226273,"date":"2026-10-02T04:12:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/witnesses-detail-horror-of-tennessee-womans-botched-execution-none-of-it-was-normal-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T04:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:12:32","slug":"witnesses-detail-horror-of-tennessee-womans-botched-execution-none-of-it-was-normal-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/witnesses-detail-horror-of-tennessee-womans-botched-execution-none-of-it-was-normal-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnesses detail horror of Tennessee woman\u2019s botched execution: \u2018None of it was normal\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Witnesses in the chamber said Christa Pike was still breathing despite receiving injections intended to kill her
When the prison warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words, she said she was going to leave this world \u201cwith love\u201d for those on her side and also the ones angry with her.
What followed was the second botched execution in Tennessee<\/a> this year, after two doses of the lethal injection failed to produce the desired effect.
Witnesses present in the chamber said Pike was still breathing despite the injections intended to kill her late on Wednesday, that nothing about the failed execution was normal and that it was unprecedented. For their part, officials said they followed every step of the approved protocol.
Pike was finally taken to the hospital after surviving the two attempts to execute her. The current status of the woman convicted of murdering a classmate in 1995 is unknown. John North, an investigative producer at WBIR television in Knoxville and also a witness at the Riverbend maximum security institution in Nashville, said when he left the building she was \u201cprobably still alive\u201d.
\u201cThis event is the worst we\u2019ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era. There is no precedent,\u201d said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, according to the New York Times.
\u201cNothing about today was normal, typical, at all,\u201d said Tori Gessner, a reporter and anchor at WKRN of Nashville and one of the members of the media who served as witnesses in the execution, according to NBC.
\u201cThey went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end. She was very ragged,\u201d said Catherine Sweeney, a reporter at the Nashville Public Radio WPLN, at a news conference after the execution attempt. \u201cShe lifted her head up and was looking around. At one point, she said \u2026 there was a spot that was burning and hurting, and asked if that was normal. None of it was normal.\u201d
Gessner also said Pike was heard saying: \u201cMy arm feels like it\u2019s about to burst open. Does this happen like that?\u201d
Gessner described the victim as \u201cinconsistently going in and out of snores and silence\u201d after the injections. \u201cWhen the curtains closed 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. And even at 8.53, when the microphone was cut off, we could still hear snoring.\u201d
Pike, 50, was convicted of killing Colleen Slemmer, her 19-year-old classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. She had been scheduled for execution on Wednesday and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start, but hours later the US supreme court overturned that stay.
Slemmer\u2019s mother, May Martinez, described the failed execution attempt in a phone interview with NBC News on Thursday. \u201cIt was a mess,\u201d she said. The Tennessee governor, Bill Lee, said he was suspending all executions this year and ordered \u201ca comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred\u201d.
In a statement, the department of correction said the state \u201cfollowed every step of the State\u2019s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General\u2019s Office\u201d and that \u201cthe lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.\u201d In May, Tennessee also aborted attempts to execute a man convicted of murders after failing to find a suitable vein for his lethal injection.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Witnesses in the chamber said Christa Pike was still breathing despite receiving injections intended to kill herWhen the prison warden asked Christa Pike if she had any last words, she said she was going to leave this world \u201cwith love\u201d for those on her side and also the ones angry with her.What followed was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}