'My Arm Feels Like It Is About to Burst Open': Christa Pike Smiled as She Survived Botched Execution, Asked Death Row Staff — 'Does This Happen Like That?'

Christa Pike reportedly smiled during the failed execution attempt before asking death row staff a question.

Media witnesses, including WKRN reporter Tori Gessner, shared some new details about what Pike said during the execution attempt.

Pike reportedly told death row staff at 7:34 p.m., "My arm feels like it is about to burst open."

She even asked, "Does this happen like that?" regarding that one spot on her arm.

Gessner also revealed that Pike’s spiritual adviser was present with her during the procedure.

The 50-year-old Tennessee death row inmate remained alive after officials administered two rounds of lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday, September 30.

The attempt lasted for more than an hour, with parts of the procedure taking place behind closed curtains.

Witnesses later said they could hear Pike breathing and snoring inside the execution chamber.

WBIR reporter John North, who witnessed the procedure, said the first dose of pentobarbital was administered around 7:30 p.m.

The blinds were then lowered, limiting what witnesses could see. At 7:46 p.m., officials closed the curtain to the media viewing room before reopening it three minutes later.

The curtain was closed again around 8:05 p.m., while witnesses continued to hear breathing that was sometimes shallow.

Pike's legal team submitted an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court at 8:26 p.m. The filing said she remained alive after receiving both syringes of chemicals.

Her attorneys argued that continuing the process subjected Pike to unnecessary suffering and asked officials to remove her IV catheters and provide immediate lifesaving treatment.

They also filed motions with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and a federal district court.

The media witnesses were told to leave the viewing area at around 8:53 p.m., with the microphone also cut off. By then, witnesses said Pike's breathing sounded rhythmic.

The Tennessee Department of Correction later said officials followed the state's established execution protocol and that the lethal injection chemical used in the procedure had consistently been effective.

She was transported to an off-site medical facility following the failed attempt.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville job training facility. Pike was 18 when the crime occurred.

The case attracted national attention after evidence showed a pentagram was carved into Slemmer's body, with the circumstances becoming linked to fears surrounding the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s.

Pike was scheduled to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her execution was initially delayed by a federal appeals court before the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the procedure to continue.

The failed attempt also marked the second time Tennessee officials were unable to complete an execution in 2026.

In May, officials stopped Tony Carruthers' lethal injection attempt after struggling for more than an hour to establish an IV.