Tennessee Governor Orders Review of Lethal Injection Protocol After Second Botched Execution

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive, third-party review of the state's execution protocols following a second botched lethal injection this year. The governor also announced that no further executions would take place in the state this year.

Christa Pike, 50, was administered two syringes of the lethal drug pentobarbital late Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. However, she remained alive and was eventually transported to a hospital, according to her attorneys. Her condition and further updates have not been provided.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer. Her case marks the second execution in Tennessee this year where the same physician, Dr. Mark Fowler, oversaw the procedure, which failed to result in death.

In May, Fowler also supervised the execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994. That execution was halted after medical personnel struggled for over an hour to establish IV access. Carruthers' sister filed a complaint against Fowler with the Tennessee Department of Health, alleging medical ethical violations and that Carruthers suffered extreme pain during the attempted procedure.

Carruthers' execution was ultimately called off by Governor Lee, who granted him a one-year reprieve. Following Pike's failed lethal injection, Lee stated that the state's responsibility to carry out lawful sentences must be done effectively and constitutionally.

Senator Marsha Blackburn has called for the reinstatement of the electric chair in light of the recent events. "This situation is tragic. Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer," Blackburn wrote on X. "While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly."

The Tennessee Department of Correction stated that it followed its established execution protocol, which includes administering a secondary set of drugs if the inmate is not deceased after the initial dose. The protocol does not specify what action should be taken if an inmate remains alive after the second set of drugs.

Tennessee transitioned from a three-drug lethal injection series to a single-drug protocol using pentobarbital in 2024. This change followed an incident in 2022 where Oscar Smith's execution was halted due to issues with the testing of lethal injection drugs.

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described Pike's failed execution as unprecedented and the most severe botched execution in modern history.