Tennessee Pauses Remaining 2026 Executions, Orders Independent Review After Botched Lethal Injection

Tennessee has paused its remaining 2026 executions and ordered an outside review after death row prisoner Christa Gail Pike survived an attempted execution in which the state administered two doses of pentobarbital but did not complete the procedure.

Gov. Bill Lee announced a “comprehensive, third-party review” after the Sept. 30 attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. He also said the state would not carry out its last scheduled execution of the year, including the planned Dec. 3 execution of Gary Wayne Sutton.

“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective. Therefore, the remaining scheduled execution will not be carried out this year,” Lee said.

Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed Thursday. According to AP reporting based on media witnesses and court filings, the execution process stretched for more than an hour after the chamber curtain was raised at about 7:27 p.m. Witnesses reported that Pike remained alive after the first dose and after a second dose had been administered by about 8:26 p.m. AP said media witnesses reported audible snoring and a heartbeat after the second dose. The microphone was then cut and witnesses were escorted out at about 8:53 p.m.

As the attempt unfolded, Pike’s attorneys filed emergency motions in state and federal court alleging she was in “unnecessary agony” and seeking a halt and medical care. In a docket entry, U.S. District Judge Clifton L. Corker wrote: “At a conference call with counsel for all parties, the state represented that medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion.” Pike’s legal team later said she was “receiving life-saving care.”

The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its actions and said it had followed the state’s protocol. Department spokesperson Dorinda Carter said: “The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office. The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”

That explanation has put new focus on Tennessee’s lethal injection rules, including what happens if an inmate is still alive after a second dose. Tennessee adopted its current single-drug pentobarbital protocol in December 2024 after an earlier review of its execution process. Reporting cited by AP says the protocol provides for a second set of syringes if the inmate is not deceased after the first set, but does not clearly spell out what to do if the person is still alive after the second set.

The failed execution was the second in Tennessee this year that did not go as planned. On May 21, the state called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after executioners failed to establish required IV access. Lee later granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

Pike’s execution also came after a day of last-minute court action. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay hours before her scheduled 10 a.m. execution time, but the U.S. Supreme Court later vacated that stay, allowing Tennessee to proceed.

Pike was convicted in 1996 in the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time of the crime.

Advocacy groups and Pike’s lawyers seized on the outcome as evidence of deeper problems with the state’s execution system. Justin Mazzola of Amnesty International USA said: “Tennessee’s attempted, but botched, execution of Christa Pike was an extreme display of cruelty and the latest reminder that the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”

Pike’s attorneys said in a statement that the state had “once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” citing what they described as “difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”