State seeks to block Pike's lawyers from inspecting execution drug

Tennessee is seeking to block Christa Pike's attorneys from accessing the lethal injection drug used in her failed execution on the grounds that it would reveal the supplier in violation of state law, court filings show.

The request follows a judge's order to preserve evidence in a lawsuit filed by Pike's attorneys and reflects the secrecy surrounding execution drugs, which states often argue is necessary to protect access to the drugs and the safety of suppliers.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital in September, which her attorneys say probably did not enter her bloodstream correctly and instead pooled in her arms, leaving them burned and blistered. The state has said it is complying with a broader order by Judge I'Ashea L. Myles requiring the preservation of evidence.

But in a Friday court filing, the state asked the judge to rescind the part of her order allowing Pike's legal team to inspect, collect and test any leftover pentobarbital from the execution attempt.

Tennessee Department of Correction fears it will lose its lethal drug supplier

In an affidavit cited in the state's filing, a Tennessee Department of Correction employee said the drug supplier would become identifiable if Pike's legal team is allowed to handle vials of pentobarbital left over from the execution attempt, or review the vials' labeling. The employee, whose name was not disclosed, wrote that residue of the pentobarbital used in Pike's botched execution is "most likely to be found" in vials of the substance used in the attempted execution.

The employee stated the state's supplier was concerned that even with redactions on the labels, the source of the pentobarbital would be identifiable. The employee said that another supplier had stopped communicating with the department in 2024 after its identity was exposed and that the state would likely be unable to find other providers if it lost access to its current source for the drug.

"Pike's counsel and experts cannot be allowed to see, handle, or otherwise get the information on the leftover vials of pentobarbital from Pike's attempted execution," Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wrote in a court filing.

Tennessee law prohibits the public disclosure of any individual or entity involved in procuring lethal substances or carrying out executions.

The head of Tennessee's Department of Correction resigned in the wake of the failed execution attempt. 

In a court filing last month, Pike's attorneys said her veins may have ruptured before she was injected with pentobarbital. The execution team used about 10 needles and tried several IV sites on both arms, her lawyers said in the filing.  

Pike's attorney says accessing the lethal drug is key

Luke Ihnen, a lawyer representing Pike, said that publicly identifying the state's lethal injection drug supplier "has never been the goal" of the litigation.

He said that it is important for Pike's legal team to be able to review how the pentobarbital used in her botched execution was labeled and stored to understand if there were issues with how it was mixed, transported or handled, and whether it was expired.

"We still don't know exactly what happened that night," Ihnen said. "Those types of things are all valuable pieces of information about what went wrong."

Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Governor-elect calls for alternative methods of execution

Pike was hospitalized on a ventilator for days following the failed execution. Her attorneys said at the time she had pneumonia, a blood clot, couldn't swallow and was unable to move her arms or hands once she regained consciousness in a Tennessee hospital. 
She has returned to prison and said she remains in constant pain.

In a statement she released exactly one month after surviving the botched execution, Pike said she had entered the execution chamber having said her goodbyes and "had not contemplated life beyond that night." 

"Several days later I woke up alone in a hospital confused and in pain," she said in a statement dictated to her lawyers. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul."

Pike is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Slemmer's mother had traveled from Florida to witness Pike's execution.

Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, announced his resignation in the wake of Pike's failed execution. The governor named Christopher Hansen as interim commissioner.

Pike's failed execution has raised questions about Tennessee's lethal injection protocol, marking the state's second execution issue this year. In May, death row inmate Tony Carruthers received a one-year reprieve after officials spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to establish an IV line.

CBS News reviewed the state's lethal injection protocols going back to 2007 and found that over the years the protocols grew increasingly vague.  

Prior to 2025, the Tennessee lethal injection protocols were laid out in detail over 100 pages and included extensive protocols. But in the most recent version, released to the public early last year, there were only 44 pages to guide members of the execution team through the process. 

Tennessee paused its executions in 2022 in order to investigate its lethal injection procedure. It resumed them in 2025, carrying out three of them with a new lethal cocktail that consisted of a single drug, pentobarbital, rather than the combination of three it used formerly.  

Pike's attorneys want Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who is set to leave office in January, to change her death sentence to life in prison. 

"The least that could happen now is that we at least take death off the table and start looking for what the future could be for her," one of Pike's attorneys, Steve Ferrell, told "CBS Mornings" last month.     

He has said that she will remain on death row unless a court determines otherwise. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state's Republican governor-elect, has called for the state to explore alternative methods of execution, including the electric chair.

The governor has tapped a former U.S. attorney to conduct an independent review of the failed execution, and called off the remaining executions scheduled in Tennessee for the rest of the year.