Tennessee halts executions after woman survives botched lethal injection

Tennessee's governor cancelled the state's remaining 2026 execution and ordered a third-party review after a lethal injection carried out on the night of September 30 into October 1 failed catastrophically. Correctional staff administered two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital to Christa Pike around 8 p.m., but she retained a heartbeat, did not lose consciousness and was reported to be audibly snoring hours later. Her attorneys filed an emergency motion overnight and she was transferred to hospital, where she remained alive on October 1 in critical condition — making her, according to lawyers and the Death Penalty Information Center, the first person ever to survive a lethal injection in the United States. Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in roughly 200 years after the US Supreme Court cleared the way earlier that evening. The case, covered heavily by CBS News, NPR, Democracy Now and PBS NewsHour, revived long-standing concerns over pentobarbital potency, drug sourcing from compounding pharmacies and the medical ethics of physician and pharmacist participation in executions.