Tennessee judge orders state to preserve evidence from Christa Pike's failed execution

Mixed · 2On Wednesday 7 October 2026, Chancellor I'Ashea Myles of Davidson County Chancery Court ordered Tennessee to preserve evidence connected to the failed execution of Christa Pike. 1 2 Mixed · 2Pike, 50, survived the 30 September attempt after receiving two doses of pentobarbital; NBC News reported doctors told it that most of the drug appeared to have entered her arm rather than her bloodstream. 1 2 Mixed · 2Her lawyers asked for the order at a hearing, arguing the state had made no promises that she would not face a future execution and that the evidence would be relevant to any future challenge. 1 2

Mixed · 2The order covers IV lines and needles, medical supplies and records, drugs used and anything from the manufacturer, photographs, video recordings, handwritten notes, checklists and witness accounts; Newsweek adds restraints, audio recordings and communications about decisions such as summoning emergency medical services and halting the second attempt. 1 2 Mixed · 2The state argued a new order was unnecessary because the Department of Correction was already required to preserve materials under existing court orders; Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers called it premature, and Myles said the state would have no problem since it was already doing so. 2 1 Mixed · 2Myles said that if anything had already been discarded the state must work to "claw back that information", and warned against evidence being lost, misplaced or accidentally deleted. 1 2

Centre · 1The state identified execution and observation logs, medical waste and products, electrocardiogram readouts and photographs of the execution chamber; some IV line portions may be held by the hospital that treated Pike. 2 Left · 1Pike's lawyers also asked for 48 hours' notice before she is moved, removal of her shackles in her hospital bed, phone or tablet access and regular visits, noting they waited two and a half hours in the hospital lobby on Tuesday; NBC's account does not report rulings on these requests. 1 Mixed · 2Pike was unconscious and on a ventilator for six days before her lawyers said on Tuesday she had woken and was speaking; one attorney said Wednesday she is "speaking limitedly", and the lawyers expect "a long recovery". 1 2

Mixed · 2Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. 1 2 Mixed · 2Gov. Bill Lee initially said the team followed protocol well, then ordered an independent review and paused executions for the rest of 2026; Corrections head Frank Strada is stepping down, saying the department followed protocol but that leaving was in Tennesseans' best interest. 1 2 Mixed · 2No execution date is set for Pike; the state's attorney said there was no pending execution order but declined to say whether Tennessee could seek another date. It was the state's second failed lethal injection this year, after Tony Carruthers' execution in May was stopped when staff struggled to find a vein. 2 1