Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called off the state’s only other execution set for 2026 shortly before midnight on Wednesday, September 30, hours after the state tried and failed to put convicted killer Christa Pike to death with two doses of lethal injection. Pike was condemned for the 1995 torture murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate, and the Supreme Court had cleared her execution that same afternoon.
Story Snapshot
- Gov. Bill Lee postponed Gary Wayne Sutton’s execution, which had been set for December 3, and ordered an outside, third-party review of what went wrong.
- Witnesses said Christa Pike was still alive more than 40 minutes after her last dose of pentobarbital, the drug Tennessee uses for executions.
- Pike is in the hospital in critical condition, her lawyers said Thursday, October 1. They say they have not been allowed to see or speak with her.
- The Tennessee Department of Correction says it followed every step of the state’s execution protocol.
- In 1947, the Supreme Court ruled that a state may try again after a failed execution.
Why The Governor Stepped In
Lee said he ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” A third-party review means people outside the prison system will look at what happened. Lee said executions must be carried out “in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective.” Sutton’s December 3 date is off the calendar while that review goes forward.
The crime at the heart of the case is why Pike was on death row. In 1995, she tortured and killed Slemmer, carving a pentagram into her body and keeping a piece of her skull, according to reports. Tennessee’s death penalty exists for crimes like that one. The governor’s halt keeps Sutton’s execution on hold while the state finds out what failed.
What Happened In The Death Chamber
Pike was first set to die Wednesday morning, but a court issued a last-minute stay, an order that pauses an execution. The Supreme Court lifted that stay later in the day. The injection began at about 7:34 p.m. Central time at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Witnesses said Pike received two full doses of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative, yet was still awake and snoring more than 40 minutes after the last one. She was heard saying, “The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” Her lawyers said she “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat.” Witnesses were ordered out of the room, and ambulances arrived to take her to an off-site hospital.
What The State Says
The Department of Correction said it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol.” The department also said “the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.” A protocol is the written, step-by-step plan the state must follow for every execution.
Those statements stand against what witnesses saw and heard inside the chamber. Lee’s outside review is meant to find out exactly what occurred, and Pike’s lawyers, the state and the public will all be watching for its findings.
Can Tennessee Try Again?
The Supreme Court has already answered that question once. In 1946, Louisiana put Willie Francis in the electric chair, and it failed. In 1947, in a case called Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, the Supreme Court let the state try again. The justices rejected claims that a second attempt would be double jeopardy, meaning punishing someone twice for the same crime, or cruel and unusual punishment. Louisiana executed Francis later that year.
More recent cases show that states do come back. In 2022, Alabama failed to execute Alan Miller in September and Kenneth Smith in November, because staff could not set the IV lines before the death warrants ran out. Alabama later executed both men with nitrogen gas, Smith in January 2024 and Miller in September 2024. Not every case ends that way. Ohio never carried out a second attempt on Romell Broom, who survived a failed execution in 2009 and died in prison in 2020.
Tennessee has not announced a new date for Pike. Gov. Lee’s outside review comes first, and the 1947 ruling is the precedent any second attempt would rest on.
Why This Hits Broader Nerves About Government Competence
People who support the death penalty want a process that is swift, certain and lawful. People who oppose it demand that the state avoid cruelty and error. Both sides agree on one thing here: the system must work as written. When the government uses its highest power, the public expects strict compliance and competence.
For the families of victims, the halt means justice now waits on an investigation. If the state followed its rules and the execution still failed, the rules need fixing. If the team strayed from the plan, training and accountability come next. The governor’s review is set to answer which it was, and the state’s pause keeps the process inside the law while those answers come in.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, abcnews.com, usatoday.com
