Tennessee governor suspends all executions after Christa Pike’s lethal injections fail

Key Points:

• Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions in the state until at least the end of the year and ordered an independent third-party inquiry following a botched lethal injection attempt on inmate Christa Pike.
• During the execution attempt, Pike was reportedly still awake and snoring about 40 minutes after receiving two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital; she was subsequently taken to an off-site medical facility with her condition unknown.
• Pike's execution was allowed to proceed after the US Supreme Court lifted a federal court stay that had been issued to review her claims of childhood sexual abuse, but her lawyers argue the state violated her rights by causing unnecessary suffering.
• The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its adherence to the established execution protocol, which includes a secondary drug dose if the inmate is not deceased after the first, but does not specify procedures if the inmate remains alive after the second dose.
• Pike, convicted for a brutal 1995 murder committed when she was 18, was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years; the suspension also affects another scheduled execution later this year.