Tennessee halts executions after Christa Pike survives lethal injection

Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row inmate who survived two lethal injection doses on 30 September, remains in critical condition, and the state’s governor has halted all executions for the rest of 2026.

Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s lawyers, told reporters on 1 October, according to the BBC: “We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment.” Spivey added: “But we do know that she is alive right now.”

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, and Pike’s lawyers are now asking for the sentence to be commuted.

Pike received two doses of the lethal-injection drug pentobarbital on 30 September, in line with Tennessee’s protocol for a failed first attempt, but remained alive afterwards, according to court filings by Pike’s lawyers.

Spivey said the execution team spent an hour trying to establish an IV line, using “at least seven needles” in Pike’s left arm, one of which appeared bent when removed after an unsuccessful attempt.

Observers were kept in a dark room behind a closed curtain after the second dose, Spivey said, even though “it was clear that Miss Pike was still breathing” minutes later: “No-one knew what was going on behind that curtain.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review and said on 1 October the investigation “will be thorough”. “There are a lot of questions,” Lee said. “The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.”

Lee has not said who will carry out the review. The pause overlaps with the planned 3 December execution of Gary Sutton.

The Tennessee Department of Correction, which carried out the execution, said in a statement that it “followed every step” of the state’s approved protocol, which “does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out”.

Tennessee’s attorney general’s office said it agreed with the call for an investigation, adding: “We need to know what happened.”

US Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for Tennessee governor, called the situation “tragic” and said the answer was simple: “bring back the electric chair.”

Blackburn’s Democratic opponent, Jerri Green, criticised the remark and posted on X: “As governor, I would put a moratorium on all future executions.”

Authorities have not said whether they will attempt the execution again, or explained why the dose was not fatal.

What happened before

Pike’s execution had been due on 30 September, after the US Supreme Court lifted a lower court’s stay and let the lethal injection attempt go ahead.

It was the second failed execution in Tennessee in 2026: in May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after staff could not find a vein, and Carruthers was given a year’s reprieve.