Live Updates: Tennessee’s Botched Execution of Christa Pike

The federal public defender’s office in Middle Tennessee is calling for substantial reforms to Tennessee’s lethal injection process.

Kit Thomas, deputy chief for the Capital Habeas Unit, said “egregious failures … will keep happening until Tennessee takes meaningful steps to increase transparency, oversight, and accountability in the execution process. Executions must not resume until it does so.”

The statement follows comments from Gov. Bill Lee, who has called for a new investigation and postponed the other execution scheduled for this year.

“An investigation is only as good as the reforms it produces. This investigation should have been launched in May when TDOC subjected Tony Carruthers to more than an hour of pain and suffering before his execution, like Ms. Pike’s, had to be called off,” Thomas wrote.

Lee did not directly answer reporter questions Thursday morning as to why he didn’t issue a moratorium after Carruthers’ execution.

Thomas also criticized the governor’s decision to appoint Frank Strada as corrections commissioner after he oversaw “problematic” executions in Arizona. Lee told reporters it’s too early to tell what went wrong with Pike’s execution or who is ultimately responsible.

“So far as we know, the Department of Correction followed exactly the protocol as outlined,” Lee said. “There was no reason to expect it to not work … But something didn’t go well right last night, and we need to find out why.”

The defender cited Tennessee’s prior lethal injection moratorium and the concerns that remained with the state’s new protocol.

“The governor’s actions have fallen short,” Thomas wrote. “Enough is enough. Tennessee must not resume executions until meaningful reforms have been identified and implemented.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is calling for a third-party review to determine what caused Christa Pike’s failed execution Wednesday.

Lee has paused executions for his last few months in office, marking the second time Lee has issued a moratorium while reviewing the state’s execution protocols. The current process is the result of a three-year review into how the state carries out the death penalty, during which no people were put to death by the state.

Follow for live updates: Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike

That 2022 review found that the drugs used in its executions had not been properly inspected, leading to an overhaul of the system and a new lethal injection process.

“This is a process that has been used over a hundred times in this country without this outcome. We need to know why the outcome is different,” Lee told reporters Thursday morning.

While Lee ordered the investigation, he will likely not be governor when the findings are published. Because of Tennessee’s term limits, Lee cannot run again. The frontrunner for the governorship, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, has indicated her support for both a thorough review and the resuming the use of the electric chair.

“Bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly. As your governor, I will do just that,” Blackburn posted on X Thursday morning.

Pike is still alive at an area hospital, but Lee would not speak to her condition following the botched execution.

Another failed lethal injection

Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Media witnesses said she was still heard breathing and snoring when they were removed from the viewing area. Pike was transported to a hospital, but her attorneys said Wednesday night they had not been told about her condition.

Demonstrators stand in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Late Wednesday night, the Tennessee Department of Correction issued a statement saying it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.” That protocol allows corrections officials to administer a second dose of the drug if a person is not deceased after the first dose. However, it does not contemplate what should happen if a second dose does not kill the prisoner.

Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called Pike’s case “singular and unparalleled.” She told the Associated Press that there are seven cases in which people have survived after the execution team failed to access a vein to administer a lethal injection. However, she said nobody has stayed alive after receiving the drugs.

This is the second botched execution in Tennessee this year. In May, the state failed to put Tony Carruthers to death after officials were unable to establish a necessary IV line. Lee gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve after that incident, but declined to issue a moratorium or change the lethal injection protocol in the aftermath.

When asked why he didn’t issue a moratorium or a review after Carruthers’ botched execution, Lee only commented on Pike’s case and his decision to pause executions now.

The state moved forward with the execution of Anthony Darrell Hines in August, despite outcry from healthcare workers and calls from GOP lawmakers to investigate what went wrong with Carruthers’ execution.

Another review

This isn’t the first time Tennessee has had to review how it administers capital punishment.

Most recently in 2022, Lee paused all executions in the state after finding that the cocktail of three drugs used to kill death row inmates had not gone through all the proper inspections. Further review found that the drugs had been mismanaged and had not been tested for contaminants for years. That discovery prompted a years-long review of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, and eventually a change to which drug is used to stop a prisoner’s heart.

When executions resumed in 2025, the state switched to a single drug: pentobarbital. The sedative is difficult for governments to source.  WPLN News has previously reported that secrecy laws and legal gray areas in procurement make it extremely difficult to know where the drug has come from.

Listen

Three women who’ve known Christa Pike talked to WPLN News about her impact and influence that extends beyond the walls of Riverbend Maximum Security Prison. Press play to listen.

As another death row inmate’s execution arrives, doctors and nurses in Tennessee say they want medical professionals removed from the execution process.

Tennessee officials were unable to carry out the execution of Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder on Wednesday, media witnesses said, after the lethal injection was halted for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal.

Listen

The upcoming execution of Christa Pike is getting more than the usual attention: she’s the first woman in more than 180 years to face the death penalty in Tennessee and she’s a practicing Buddhist, a focal point in her legal battles and how she will be put to death. 

Days before Tennessee’s next execution, a court is considering whether the state’s execution methods violate another death row inmate’s rights.