Tennessee Botches Christa Pike's Execution; Governor Halts All Executions for 2026

Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday night and failed. Prison officials gave the 50-year-old death row inmate two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but she stayed alive. Her lawyers said she could be heard snoring in the death chamber.

Pike was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Her lawyers said late Wednesday night that they had not been told about her condition.

The night unfolded over two hours. Media witnesses were led into the witness chamber at 6:41 p.m. Central time. At 7:26 p.m., the blinds opened and Pike was visible on the gurney. She gave a final statement, saying she would leave this world the same way she spent most of her life, “in love,” and that she had love for the people who were “hating on her.” She closed with: “I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free.”

At 7:34 p.m., Pike told the room her arm felt like it was “about to bust” and one spot was throbbing. The blinds closed at 7:46 p.m. and reopened three minutes later. Pike was still breathing and had begun snoring. The blinds closed for the last time at 8:05 p.m. Witnesses were escorted out at 8:53 p.m. and could still hear her breathing when the microphone cut off.

As witnesses were describing what they heard, Pike’s lawyers filed emergency motions in federal court and the Tennessee Supreme Court, arguing she was being put through “unnecessary agony” and cruel and unusual punishment. District Judge Clifton L. Corker ruled the federal motion moot after the state told the court that medical personnel had begun giving her medical care.

WKRN reporter Tori Gessner, who has witnessed several executions, said, “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.” No official from the Tennessee Department of Correction appeared before the media after the attempt.

Governor orders a review and pauses the rest of the year

Gov. Bill Lee ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review” of what went wrong and paused the state’s remaining scheduled execution for the rest of 2026. Gary Wayne Sutton had been set for execution Dec. 3 for the 1992 murders of Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam in East Tennessee’s Blount County.

“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,” Lee said in a statement.

The state stands by its protocol

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it did everything right. “The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” department spokesperson Dorinda Carter said by email. She said the lethal injection chemical “has consistently been effective” and the protocol “does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.”

Pike’s lawyers saw it differently. “Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” said her attorneys, Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the state post-conviction defender’s office, and Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee. “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: 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.”

A second failure this year

This is the second Tennessee execution to fail this year. In May, the state called off Tony Carruthers’ execution after more than two and a half hours of failed attempts to establish an IV line, according to the Tennessean. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called what Pike went through “singular and unparalleled.”

Pike’s execution had originally been set for 10 a.m. Wednesday. About an hour before it was to begin, the Sixth Circuit stayed it. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated that stay a few minutes after 5:45 p.m., clearing the way for the evening attempt.

The 1995 killing

Pike was 18 when she killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student, in January 1995. Pike and two others lured Slemmer to a remote area, where Pike stabbed and beat her to death. She was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.

Had the execution gone forward, Pike would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.