Christa Pike ended up in the hospital. She survived two lethal injections in Tennessee, months after the suspended attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May 2026.
The defense reported difficulties establishing an intravenous line, degraded pentobarbital and a lack of emergency care. Authorities said they had followed protocol. In Carruthers’s case, the procedure was halted after more than an hour without obtaining intravenous access.
State Governor Bill Lee ordered an external review and suspended the other execution scheduled for that year. Amnesty International called the death penalty cruel, inhuman and degrading.
