Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the state’s remaining execution for the rest of 2026 after officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death Wednesday night at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Pike, 50, was given two doses of pentobarbital but was still alive afterward, according to court filings by her attorneys and a Tennessee Department of Correction statement that said she was transported to an off-site medical facility.
The breakdown came during an execution for Pike’s 1995 murder conviction in Knox County. Lee said he ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred,” saying executions must be carried out in a way that is “legal and constitutional, but is effective.”
Execution failed after two doses, state says protocol was followed
Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. local time on Sept. 30, 2026, but an appeals court issued a stay about an hour before the procedure was to begin, according to the Associated Press account published by KWTX. Later that day, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to proceed, and media witnesses reported that curtains to the execution chamber were raised at 7:27 p.m.
Witnesses said Pike spoke her last words, remained awake and at one point raised her head and asked prison officials whether her arm was supposed to feel that way. By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered. Pike could still be heard snoring behind a closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m., according to the AP report.
Late Wednesday, Pike’s lawyers told courts she was in “unnecessary agony” and asked for an immediate halt, arguing the procedure violated her constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The Tennessee Department of Correction said at 11:15 p.m. that officials “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” and said the protocol “does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.”
The failed execution unfolded at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the prison where Tennessee carries out executions. State corrections officials had issued media guidance in September for witnesses covering Pike’s scheduled execution there, underscoring that the event was expected to proceed at that location on Sept. 30.
Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, according to the AP report. Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described what happened as “singular and unparalleled,” saying other botched lethal injection cases have involved failed vein access, not a prisoner surviving after receiving the drugs.
The case also touched Knoxville, where the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer drew broad attention. Prosecutors said Pike, then 18, lured Slemmer to a wooded area and fatally stabbed and beat her. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had traveled to Nashville hoping to witness the execution, the AP reported. The state has not said what Lee’s decision means beyond the remaining scheduled execution this year.
Lee’s order came after the second failed Tennessee execution in 2026. In May, the state called off the planned execution of Tony Von Carruthers after the team could not establish a backup IV line required by protocol, according to the governor’s office and the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Tennessee has been using a single-drug pentobarbital protocol since completing a revised lethal injection procedure in December 2024, according to the Department of Correction. The agency said that protocol was developed in consultation with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and was intended to ensure “lawful and effective procedures” in carrying out death sentences.
What happens next for Pike was not clear Wednesday night. Her attorneys said she had been taken by ambulance to a hospital and that they had not been told about her condition. Lee’s statement confirmed that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year. Tennessee’s review is now set to examine how an execution proceeded through two doses of pentobarbital without causing death, a scenario the AP reported is not spelled out in the state’s protocol after the second set of syringes is used.