Tennessee has halted all executions for the rest of 2026 after Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday, September 30, in what would have been the state's first execution of a woman in about 200 years.

Pike, 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training program in 1995. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution on Wednesday, with the three liberal justices dissenting.

A media witness reported that Pike appeared awake as the procedure began and could later be heard snoring loudly, clearly alive in the chamber, before witnesses were removed. She was taken to a hospital.

Governor Bill Lee said the remaining execution scheduled for this year, on December 3, will not be carried out, and the state will commission an independent review. It was Tennessee's second failed execution in a matter of months.

Pike's lawyers had asked for clemency, citing her age at the time of the crime, mental illness and a history of trauma. Only 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976.