The Tennessee governor, Bill Lee, announced, in the early hours of this Thursday, the 1st, the suspension of all executions in the state until the end of the year. The decision comes after Christa Gail Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996, survived a lethal injection of pentobarbital hours earlier, on Wednesday night, the 30th.
Lee announced an external audit to “determine exactly what happened.” In addition to Christa’s execution, another was scheduled to take place in 2026.
“Carrying out a legally imposed sentence is among the state’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a way that is not only legal and constitutional, but also effective,” said the governor.
The state’s execution protocol provides for the administration of a second dose of drugs by syringes, “in case the inmate is not dead,” after the first dose. The document does not specify what should be done if the individual remains alive after the second dose.
This is the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to carry out an execution.
In May, state authorities canceled the lethal injection execution of Tony Carruthers, convicted of kidnapping and the murder of three people in 1994, after the execution team, for more than an hour, unsuccessfully attempted to insert a venous access for the administration of pentobarbital.
