Tennessee Halts Executions After Inmate Survives Lethal Injection

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has halted the state’s remaining executions for 2026 after officials failed to carry out the lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Gail Pike, an episode a capital punishment expert described as unprecedented.

Prison staff at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution administered two doses of pentobarbital to Pike on Wednesday evening. She survived and was taken to an off-site medical facility. Her condition has not been publicly disclosed. Lee said he ordered a comprehensive third-party review “to determine exactly what occurred.”

“I’m highly disappointed, along with Tennesseans, about what happened last night,” Lee told reporters Thursday at a separate public event. He said lawful executions are among the state’s “most serious responsibilities” and that the attempt did not meet expectations that a court-imposed sentence be carried out legally, constitutionally and effectively.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, committed when Pike was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. An initial morning schedule was delayed after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay by a 2-1 vote; the U.S. Supreme Court later lifted that stay, and the procedure proceeded at night.

Pike’s lawyers filed emergency motions late Wednesday seeking an immediate halt, arguing she remained conscious, still had a heartbeat and was experiencing unnecessary suffering in violation of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. They had previously raised concerns about her medical history and vein access.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed the state’s established protocol approved by the attorney general’s office and that the protocol does not authorize steps beyond those already taken. The department added that the lethal drug used in the protocol has previously been effective.

Lee’s pause affects the one remaining execution on Tennessee’s 2026 calendar, including the planned Dec. 3 date for Gary Sutton. It is the second failed execution attempt in the state this year. In May, officials called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after they could not establish intravenous access; Carruthers received a one-year reprieve.

Tennessee switched in 2024 from a three-drug lethal injection series to a single-drug pentobarbital protocol, following earlier problems with drug testing and preparation. Lee has not named the outside reviewers who will examine Wednesday’s failure. Until that review is complete, no further executions will proceed in the state this year.