Thursday, October 01, 2026

Is going through a second attempt at killing an inmate double jeopardy?

This isn't the first time Tennessee has messed up an execution. The wardens need to have emergency personnel on standby at the hospital when they are making such attempts. Notification to the hospital there is going to be an execution taking place, date and time. This way the hospital staff and EMTs can have a dedicated bay and ambulance when, not if, something goes wrong.

September 30, 2026
By Li Cohen and Debra Worley

Tennessee officials (click here) were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug.

Her attorneys have filed an emergency motion to halt her execution after they say Pike was “still alive and snoring” after receiving her lethal injection on Wednesday.

“The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to bust,” one witness recalled her saying.

According to the emergency motion, the Tennessee Department of Correction began the execution of Pike at about 9 p.m. ET. The motion says that both syringes of pentobarbital were administered and that Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”...