Tennessee’s governor halted executions in the state and ordered an investigation into how officials there botched the lethal injection of Christa Pike, saying he was “highly disappointed” by what happened.
“The people of Tennessee have determined that capital punishment is the appropriate sentence for the most heinous of crimes,” Gov. Bill Lee (R) said Thursday morning.
The state’s residents “expect that those sentences will be carried out in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but effective,” he said. “And that didn’t happen.”
Pike, who was sentenced to death for her role in killing Colleen Slemmer in 1995, had been set to die by lethal injection Wednesday at a Nashville prison. Attorneys for Pike said she was administered two doses of lethal injection drugs during the process, causing her “unnecessary agony.”
Her lawyers had specifically challenged Tennessee’s lethal injection process beforehand, expressing fears that she would endure undue suffering and that a blood disorder and small veins could cause complications. They instead sought another method of execution, such as firing squad or hanging.
Days before the scheduled execution, Lee rejected Pike’s clemency petition, which also argued that her history as a sex assault victim was not properly considered in the case. The courts ultimately allowed the execution to move forward.
State officials halted the process on Wednesday evening, and Pike received medical attention. She was taken to a hospital for further treatment, and her condition was not immediately clear Thursday.
Pike’s botched execution — the second time this year that officials in Tennessee struggled to conduct a lethal injection — ignited outrage and criticism from supporters and opponents of the death penalty alike. The incident also revived scrutiny of the methods used to carry out death sentences in the United States.
“How can anyone who witnessed what happened in Tennessee last night claim that executions are constitutional or humane?” Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, a human rights group, said in a statement. “The state was warned, clearly and repeatedly, that proceeding with this lethal injection execution risked torturing Christa Pike, but went ahead anyway.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), who is running to succeed Lee as governor, pledged to revive use of the electric chair if she is elected, portraying that as the way to avoid repeating Wednesday’s botched execution.
“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,” she said in a statement.
In a statement after the attempted execution, the Tennessee Department of Correction said it “followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol.”
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening,” the department said.
Tennessee’s protocol, which was adopted in January 2025, calls for using the drug pentobarbital to carry out lethal injections.
The written protocol describes using two sets of syringes containing pentobarbital for executions, with one serving as a backup if the condemned survives the first injection. There is no language detailing further dosages.
Pike’s attorneys had mounted multiple attempts to prevent her execution and challenged Tennessee’s lethal injection processes, arguing in part that she faced a higher risk of complications.
Tennessee officials pushed back against their challenges, writing in court papers that Pike’s lawyers made an “absurd suggestion that hanging would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain as compared to lethal injection.”
Multiple courts rejected her appeals, as did Lee, the governor. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday vacated a lower court’s stay of Pike’s execution, clearing the way for it to proceed.
“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true,” her attorneys said in a statement, adding that issues in Wednesday’s attempted execution included “difficult vein access” and “no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong.”
Pike had been 18 when she helped murder Colleen Slemmer, a fellow teenager, in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995. Court records show that Pike and two other teens lured Slemmer into a wooded area and tortured and killed her.
May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, had traveled to Tennessee with her husband to witness the execution.
Speaking Thursday morning, Lee said he had ordered up “a thorough and comprehensive and third-party review and investigation into the protocol.”
Noting that the inquiry would take time, Lee said he would stay Pike’s execution and all others for the time being. Another execution scheduled in the state for this year was also called off.
“There are very few answers this morning,” Lee said, when pressed about what went wrong in Pike’s execution. “It’s very early. There are a lot of questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered, and that’s what this investigation is for.”
Lee also offered a defense of Tennessee’s officials and its lethal injection process, saying that the Department of Correction “followed exactly the protocol as outlined.”
“This is a process that has been used over 100 times in this country, without this outcome,” he said. “We need to know why the outcome was different this time than ever before. … There is no reason to expect it to not work.”
The botched execution in Tennessee came as that state and others have struggled over the years to carry out death sentences.
Tennessee botched another execution earlier this year, when officials struggled with inserting an intravenous line to carry out the death sentence for Tony Carruthers, a convicted murderer. This took place at the same Nashville prison where Pike’s execution was scheduled. Carruthers’s execution was also called off, and Lee gave him a one-year reprieve.
In 2024, Idaho authorities halted the attempted execution of a then-73-year-old serial killer after they were unable to insert an intravenous line to deliver the lethal injection drugs. Authorities have also had problems in other cases with inserting IV lines and delivering the lethal drugs.
The death penalty is on the books in 27 states and available for the federal government, though some of those states seldom, if ever, carry out executions. A significant share of people on death row nationwide were sentenced decades ago, and many are likely to die there without being executed, according to a 2024 Washington Post analysis.
Capital punishment has significantly declined across the country in recent decades, though there was a sharp increase last year, driven in large part by a surge in Florida.
There were 47 executions nationwide last year, the most since 2009, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment.
Nationwide, a decreasing number of states have been carrying out fewer executions each year, and death sentences have also significantly declined.
States that have continued to carry out death sentences have in some cases struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections, with pharmaceutical companies objecting to their products being used for executions.
In some cases, states and officials have looked at other execution methods as alternate options, including the electric chair or firing squad.
President Donald Trump is a vocal supporter of capital punishment, and the Trump administration said earlier this year it was moving to make firing squads and electric chairs options to carry out federal death sentences.
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