Pike was taken to hospital after Tennessee officials stopped an attempt to execute her by lethal injection on September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Her lawyers provided the latest details about her condition in a court filing on Friday, October 2.
According to the filing, hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life and remove pentobarbital from her system.
She had been given two doses of the drug during the execution attempt.
Pike’s attorneys said they believe problems with the intravenous lines caused the drug to enter surrounding tissue rather than properly entering her bloodstream.
They alleged that members of the execution team failed to recognize that the IV lines were not correctly placed before administering a second dose.
The attorneys also said Pike suffered significant injuries to both arms.
Her legal team has asked a Tennessee court to require the state Department of Correction to preserve evidence connected to the failed execution, saying the material could be important in determining what happened.
The execution team reportedly spent about an hour attempting to administer the lethal drugs.
Pike’s defense lawyer Randy Spivey said he counted at least seven needles in her left arm. Neither the initial dose nor the second dose resulted in her death.
Tennessee officials have not publicly provided a detailed explanation for the failure.
The state Department of Correction has previously said the execution followed its established protocol.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review of the incident and halted further executions in the state for the remainder of 2026.
Another execution that had been scheduled for this year was also postponed.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was her classmate. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime.
She had been the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and was scheduled to become the first woman executed by the state in more than two centuries.
The failed execution has renewed questions about Tennessee’s lethal injection procedures.
The state had previously conducted a review of its execution process after another execution was halted in 2022 over concerns about the state’s lethal injection drugs and procedures.
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