Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital in a botched Tennessee execution, and her lawyers now urge Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence.
Page F7From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 4 October 2026
THE LEDGER
Tennessee hired a chief after four botched executions, got a fifth, named a sixth official to explain it.
As it ran on the front
The hiring file came first, and it is still the first fact on this page: Tennessee brought in Frank Strada to run its prisons with four botched executions already logged against him from his years overseeing Arizona's death chamber. That hire is dated earlier than everything that follows.
The Supreme Court cleared the next step on September 30, allowing Tennessee to execute Christa Pike, the state's only woman on death row, for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Wednesday night the state administered two doses of pentobarbital at 8:26 p.m. Forty minutes later, media witnesses said they could still hear her snoring. That same night, Pike's federal public defenders filed a motion with the Tennessee Supreme Court stating she was still alive.…
…(cont) By Thursday, United Nations human rights experts had asked the state not to try again. Governor Bill Lee called what happened "deeply disturbing," suspended executions statewide, and ordered an independent inquiry into what went wrong.
On Saturday, Frank Strada — the man whose Arizona record already carried four prior botches before Tennessee hired him — announced he will leave his post later this month. The fifth botch is now on his file. His departure is a future date on a press release, not a resignation already completed; nothing in the record has him out of the building yet.
Attorney, to lead the review. That makes six names on this file: four Arizona entries, the fifth in Nashville, and now a sixth man hired to read what the first five already documented — a procedure that failed on the clock, with a timestamp, and a motion filed to a state Supreme Court while it was still failing.
What keeps getting disputed is narrower: whether a state can keep assigning its hardest job to the people with the longest record of getting it wrong, and then hire one more person to explain why.
The file isn't missing anything, hon. It has four Arizona entries, forty minutes of Wednesday night, a motion filed while the clock was still running, and a resignation letter postdated to protect a title nobody's been asked to give back yet. What it doesn't have is an answer for why the fifth chance went to the man who already had four.
“They hired the guy with four botched executions on his record to run more executions, and when the fifth one went just as bad they let him "resign" with a departure date three weeks out instead of being walked out that night. Now they're paying a lawyer to go find out what's already sitting in four states' worth of paperwork: you don't fix a broken procedure by promoting the man who broke it four times somewhere else first. Somebody's getting paid to ask the question here; nobody's getting paid to answer it with a flat no.”
“Governor Lee moved fast on this — independent review, outside counsel, full transparency, that's what leadership looks like. Frank Strada brought years of correctional management experience to the job, and sure, four prior incidents in Arizona is — okay, that's actually a lot when you say it out loud. He clearly understood the protocol, he just didn't execute it correctly. Five times. Did I say "execute"? Let's move on.”
Earlier in this story
- Tennessee hired a prison chief with four botched executions in the file, got the fifth on Wednesday and the resignation on Saturday; the Justice Department spent the same week asking the judge who struck its press ban to restore it on grounds of professionalism. By Ruth · the midnight edition, 4 October 2026
The receipts
Failed attempt to execute 50-year-old prompts review of state’s execution practices. Plus the California woman who is allergic to cold Good morning. Tennessee’s governor has suspended executions as Christa Pike’s lawyer says the state’s failed lethal injection execution attempt has left her in a critical condition.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Thursday called on Tennessee to reintroduce the electric chair for executions after death-row prisoner Christa Pike survived two lethal injections the day before. Blackburn, who is the GOP nominee in the Volunteer State's gubernatorial race, called the botched execution “tragic”
19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was tortured, mutilated and murdered in Tennessee.
The death penalty is back center stage in national politics in the most macabre of circumstances. Christa Pike, 50, who admits to the gruesome 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, is in critical condition in the hospital after Tennessee’s attempt to execute her Wednesday evening failed. The attempted execution had only proceeded at…
Frank Strada leaving position as state launches independent investigation into what went wrong Tennessee’s top prison official is stepping down in the aftermath of the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike , the state’s governor Bill Lee announced Saturday. Frank Strada, the department of correction commissioner, will leave…
This represents the second failed attempt at an execution via lethal injection in Tennessee this year alone.
The Tennessee inmate was brought to a hospital with burned and blistered arms after an unsuccessful attempt at lethal injection, her lawyers said in a court filing.
Tennessee attempted to carry out the death sentence imposed on Christa Pike on Wednesday. The state administered its prescribed lethal-injection procedure. Pike survived.
The lawyers for a Tennessee woman who survived an execution attempt said on Friday she is unconscious and intubated following the failed procedure this week. Christa Pike, 50, was scheduled for execution on Wednesday, but is still alive after two attempts to end her life by lethal injection. Both attempts failed, and Pike’s lawyer said…
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced in July that President Trump had fired Roger Rogoff as the U.S. attorney in Seattle, less than an hour after he was sworn into the post.
‘Critically ill but not in a coma.’
Attorneys say hospital staff are working to clear pentobarbital she was administered from her system Christa Pike remained hospitalized, unconscious and on a machine helping her breathe after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday. The attorneys said hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life…
United Nations human rights experts on Thursday joined the growing chorus of people around the world outraged by Tennessee's two botched attempts to execute Christa Pike and called on the state to refrain from trying again to kill the 50-year-old woman. After a last-minute legal battle , the US Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to execute…
A federal judge restored Roger Rogoff as the top federal prosecutor in Seattle on Thursday, ruling that President Donald Trump could not fire a U.S. attorney whom district judges had appointed less than an hour earlier. U.S.
A federal appellate court on Wednesday morning temporarily blocked Tennessee from executing Christa Pike, as witnesses had already gathered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for the state's first execution of a woman in centuries. A panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled 2-1 to halt the…
The failed execution of Christa Pike has prompted new scrutiny of Frank Strada, who resigned as the state’s top prison official on Saturday, and his past role overseeing executions in Arizona.
He expressed disbelief that Pike survived the two rounds of lethal injection, becoming the first person in history to survive that death penalty method.
Gov. Bill Lee appointed former US Attorney Ed Stanton to review Tennessee's botched execution of Christa Pike.
The execution drug, pentobarbital, is a caustic, highly alkaline chemical that burns human flesh, tissue and veins on contact, akin to household chemicals like "bleach" or "Drano," Pike’s experts say.
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada he will resign days after the execution of Christa Pike was botched, the governor said.
Tennessee's botched execution of Christa Pike is renewing scrutiny over how states carry out the death penalty and raising questions about what legal recourse exists when that protocol goes awry. The attempt mirrors recent failures in other states, where inmates and their lawyers have argued in court that such errors amount to cruel…
Also, the Supreme Court will review Trump’s migrant detention policy. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
The botched lethal injection of Christa Pike led to the halting of all scheduled executions in the state.
“I’ve never seen anything like what we saw Wednesday night,” said one reporter who witnessed the execution attempt.
Trump administration lawyers are fighting back against CNN, MS NOW and Politico's attempt to prevent the White House from enforcing futures bans against them — with the Justice Department (DOJ) now arguing the three outlets failed to meet “professional" standards. “The President concluded that they have failed to maintain basic minimum…
Christa Pike remains unconscious on a ventilator after Tennessee's botched lethal injection as attorneys file to preserve execution evidence.
Gov. Bill Lee ordered a review of the state’s lethal injection process after the botched attempt to execute the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row.
Christa Pike's botched lethal injection could end capital punishment in Tennessee altogether, warns former Knoxville Police chief Phil Keith.
Tennessee gave death row inmate Christa Pike two doses of a lethal drug, but somehow she survived. NBC News’ Jesse Kirsch reports.
Christa Pike was taken to a hospital after the failed attempts to put her to death in Tennessee on Wednesday night. Her condition was not known and officials have not said how she survived the deadly doses of pentobarbital.
A federal judge has ordered a U.S. attorney from Western Washington who was fired by President Donald Trump in July to immediately be reinstated to the position.
Three-quarters of nations have rightly abolished capital punishment in law or practice, but killing by the state has surged in the US What is the kindest way to kill? That’s the question being asked once more following Tennessee’s failed attempts to execute Christa Pike for the brutal murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was…
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of a lethal injection drug during her attempted execution, her attorneys say. Officials are investigating what went wrong.
State legislators and the courts have turned the death penalty into a grimly farcical process, feeding the cheapest arguments against it. The attempted execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee showcases this fact. For full context, an 18-year-old Pike and an accomplice lured Colleen Slemmer into the woods, tortured her with a box cutter…
The Tennessee prison chief who oversaw the botched execution of murderer Christa Pike has stepped down from the position.
Christa Pike is receiving medical care after Tennessee failed to execute her by lethal injection Wednesday night. Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham Law School, joins "The Daily Report" to break down what could happen next.
The prison commissioner in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned over the failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee has said.
Frank Strada will leave role next month after uproar over execution attempt, which sent Pike to hospital in critical condition Tennessee’s prison chief is resigning after the failed execution of Christa Pike, which lawyers say was the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022. Frank Strada, the…
Christa Pike’s lethal injection is booked for September 30. She may be the first woman Tennessee executes in 200 years.
Tennessee inmate Christa Pike was in critical condition and receiving “lifesaving medical care” on Thursday, a day after surviving two failed lethal injection attempts by state executioners, according to her lawyers. Attorney Randy Spivey, who was present at the Wednesday execution attempt, said during a press conference that state…
Pike's lawyers said the failure "goes far beyond any one person". Pike is in critical condition after surviving two lethal injections.
It is a scandal that Christa Pike’s execution was botched, but we must ask whose fault that was.
Medicalizing and sanitizing capital punishment erase the deterrence it is supposed to create.
The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on CNN, MS Now, and Politico journalists’ access to the White House, arguing that access to the White House is a privilege, not a constitutional right. The filing comes after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, temporarily blocked…
Independent inquiry ordered after failed execution of Pike, who was convicted of 1994 murder Christa Pike: what we know so far about Tennessee woman’s failed execution Tennessee ’s governor on Thursday said it was “deeply disturbing” that his state botched the execution of a death row prisoner who remained alive and snoring 40 minutes…
Christa Pike remains alive but unconscious and intubated after her failed execution on Wednesday, her lawyers said.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled the Trump administration must turn over a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo that legally authorizes the Pentagon’s lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected two of the administration’s three arguments to keep the document secret in a 66-page opinion…
Frank Strada, who oversaw the process that left Christa Pike unconscious and hospitalized, quit as an independent review begins.
· Tennessee woman ‘snoring’ and still alive as execution halted, witnesses say from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Tennessee inmate Christa Pike still alive after lethal injection dose, lawyers say from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· After failed execution, health workers say Tennessee's method flouts medical ethics from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court Allows Execution of Christa Pike, Tennessee’s Lone Woman on Death Row from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Federal court halts Christa Pike's execution from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Sunday Shows Preview: Trump bans 3 media outlets from White House; Parties make final cases as midterms approach from the morgue, 19 Sep 2026
· Vance defends White House media ban: ‘Politico is as anti-Trump as Breitbart was anti-Obama or anti-Biden’ from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Vance defends Trump's media ban as 'totally appropriate' from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Bill Clinton: 'There were lots of times when I wanted to ban the White House press corps' from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court declines Christa Pike's clemency appeal, with Tennessee set to execute first woman in 200 years from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike to go forward from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Tennessee court makes last minute move to temporarily halt Christa Pike's execution from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Trump White House Restores Access to Politico, MS NOW, CNN Reporters Hours After Judge's Order from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Judge orders White House to restore media access temporarily for blocked outlets from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters regain entry to White House from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Christa Pike’s Tennessee execution halted by court an hour before it was scheduled from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Tennessee inmate survived two lethal injections, her lawyer says in motion to halt execution from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Tennessee prepares to execute the first woman in over 200 years from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· States should not blindly Alabama's use of execution by nitrogen from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Lone woman death row inmate Christa Pike says she’s ‘at peace’ ahead of execution — as Tennessee gov. denies last-ditch bid for clemency from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Fourth Circuit worried Trump’s US attorney appointments unlawfully cut out Senate from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Judge blocks Trump executive order banning ‘birth tourism’ from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· The Supreme Court of the United States rules 5–4 to lift the block on four federal executions scheduled for July and August. Convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, whose execution was scheduled for the from the morgue, 14 Jul 2020
· The Supreme Court of the United States refuses to vacate a stay of execution issued by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Arkansas's highest court has also put on hold the execution of another inmate, Bruce from the morgue, 18 Apr 2017
· CNN, MS Now, and Politico ask judge to extend order pausing Trump’s ban from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Trump administration asks Supreme Court to OK transgender inmate policy from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Mom of Christa Pike’s victim has furious response to watching failed execution: ‘They f–ked up’ from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· What to know about pentobarbital after death row inmate survives 2 lethal injection doses from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· United States district court judge Jeremy Fogel imposes a moratorium on lethal injections in California stating that they are unconstitutional. In an unrelated incident, the Governor of Florida Jeb Bu from the morgue, 15 Dec 2006
· John Marek becomes the 68th death row inmate in the state of Florida, United States to be executed by lethal injection since the death sentence was re-instated in 1979.(Miami Herald) from the morgue, 19 Aug 2009
· U.S. President Joe Biden commutes the death sentences of 37 out of the 44 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. The exceptions are Dylann Roof, Robert Gregory Bowers, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, from the morgue, 23 Dec 2024
· The death penalty: 50 years after reinstatement from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
· After nitrogen execution blocked, Alabama inmate to die by lethal injection from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
· Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Pike survives 2 lethal injection attempts from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike's failed execution follows another in Tennessee this year from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· US Supreme Court clears way for Tennessee woman's imminent execution from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.