Toggle Daily
Tennessee governor orders inquiry after lethal injection fails to kill Christa Pike
October 1, 2026
Tennessee officials gave Christa Pike two doses of pentobarbital and could not execute her for a 1995 murder, and Governor Bill Lee has ordered an investigation.
Pike was sentenced to death for a 1995 murder in Tennessee; doctors later found she had bipolar disorder and PTSD, both identified after the killing.
Key facts
- NPR reports, citing the Death Penalty Information Center, that 18 women have been executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976, roughly 1% of the total.
- NBC News reports that Gaile Owens also sat on death row in Tennessee alongside Pike until 2010, when Gov. Phil Bredesen reduced her punishment to life imprisonment.
- AP News reports that Christa Gail Pike remained alive after Tennessee officials gave her two doses of a lethal drug, so her execution for a 1995 killing was not carried out.
- AP News reports that the Tennessee Department of Correction maintains it carried out each required step of its protocol for executions.
AP News reports that Tennessee officials could not execute Christa Pike for a 1995 murder despite two doses of a lethal drug, and the Tennessee Department of Correction says it followed every step of its execution protocol. Her attorneys said in court filings that the drug was pentobarbital, according to AP News, and NPR and Al Jazeera carry the same detail. Al Jazeera reports that lawyers say Pike was taken to a hospital by ambulance, and USA Today's headline says Governor Bill Lee has ordered an investigation.
NPR reports that the protocol calls for a second set of syringes if the inmate is still alive after the first, but does not say what happens after the second. Pike said, “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done.” NBC News carries the same statement. USA Today reports that death penalty observers condemned Tennessee as questions grew about what happened to Pike.
NPR reports that 18 women have been executed since the death penalty returned under a 1976 Supreme Court ruling, about 1% of all executions, citing the Death Penalty Information Center. The failed execution and the two doses are settled across the coverage; what the investigation finds is not.
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done,” said Pike.
Pike
Still developing
The investigation the governor orders had not moved as of this draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- AP News — Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Gail Pike survives lethal injection attempt - crossville-chronicle.com
- NBC News — Christa Pike: What to know about the case of Tennessee death row inmate - NBC News
- USA Today — Tennessee governor orders investigation into Christa Pike failed execution
- NPR — Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Gail Pike survives lethal injection
- Al Jazeera — Tennessee death-row prisoner Christa Pike survives lethal injections | Death Penalty News | Al Jazeera
Toggle read the full reports of all 5 outlets counted on this event.