Christa Pike survived a Sept. 30 execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after receiving two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
Following the botched execution, Pike was taken to a hospital to receive medical treatment. As of early Oct. 1, neither The Tennessean nor her attorneys were aware of her condition.
After being escorted out of the execution chamber following the failed execution, media witnesses recounted what occurred at a podium in front of the prison. Witnesses recalled hearing Pike breathe and snore after receiving pentobarbital.
"My arm feels like it's about to burst open," Pike said, according to Tori Gessner, a journalist at WKRN. "Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all."
Pike's attorneys
filed an emergency motion in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee shortly after the attempt. At around 12 a.m. CT, Gov. Bill Lee said he would be opening athird-party investigation into the failed attempt and paused all remaining 2026 executions.
What is pentobarbital?
According to the National Library of Medicine, pentobarbital is a barbiturate that slows activity in the brain and central nervous system. It is used to treat seizures and insomnia and can cause deep sedation and respiratory depression at high doses.
The drug is used in lethal injections because of its powerful effects on the central nervous system. At high doses, the drug can suppress breathing and induce a coma.
Pentobarbital is a Schedule II controlled substance, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
When did Tennessee start using pentobarbital for executions?
Following the reprieve granted to death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith in May 2022, Lee halted all executions and ordered an independent review of the Tennessee Department of Correction's (TDOC) procedures.
After the comprehensive review was completed in December 2024, TDOC announced that it would use pentobarbital to carry out executions.
“I am confident the lethal injection process can proceed in compliance with departmental policy and state laws,” said TDOC Commissioner Frank Strada.
Tennessee's previous execution protocol used a three-drug cocktail beginning with sodium thiopental, another barbiturate, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Are there any drugs similar to pentobarbital?
Given that it belongs to the barbiturate class of medications, other drugs similar to pentobarbital include phenobarbital, sodium thiopental and secobarbital, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Like pentobarbital, the three aforementioned medications suppress activity in the brain and central nervous system in high doses. They are also typically used for seizure control, anesthesia and sedation.
A case report published by the National Library of Medicine described a man who survived a pentobarbital overdose after being found unconscious and in respiratory arrest. Doctors said the drug caused the man to experience profound unconsciousness, dangerously low blood pressure and failure to breathe without medical intervention.
The moratorium on pentobarbital that President Donald Trump lifted
Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the Department of Justice’s Office (DOJ) of Legal Policy to conduct a review of the federal execution procedures and their use of pentobarbital in July 2021.
After a three-year investigation, Garland announced on Jan. 15, 2025, that the DOJ had rescinded the federal government's single-drug pentobarbital lethal injection protocol and paused federal executions, the Death Penalty Information Center reported.
"Because it cannot be said with reasonable confidence that the current execution protocol ‘not only afford[s] the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States’ but ‘also treat[s] individuals [being executed] fairly and humanely,’…that protocol should be rescinded, and not reinstated unless and until that uncertainty is resolved," Garland said in a letter to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
During the first day of his second term on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at lifting the moratorium and reestablishing the federal death penalty.
The moratorium was formally lifted by former Attorney General Pam Bondi on Feb. 5, 2025.
Peter Burditt covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact him at PBurditt@nashvill.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Pentobarbital failed to kill Christa Pike. Why is it used in executions?
