Christa Pike's Botched Execution Leaves Her Fighting for Life on Ventilator

UPDATE — 10/2/26, 5:53 p.m. ET: Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike’s lawyer has revealed that she is unconscious and using a ventilator after surviving a botched execution earlier this week.

Her attorneys filed an emergency motion, which Us obtained, at Nashville’s Davidson County Chancery Court on Friday, October 2, requesting that the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) preserve all potential evidence related to Pike’s failed execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Wednesday, September 30. (People first reported the news.)

“As of last night, October 1, 2026, Ms. Pike remains critically ill and is being treated at a Nashville-area hospital,” her lawyers informed the court. “She is intubated, on a ventilator and remains unconscious.”