Botched executions came after multiple changes to Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol

October 30, 2026 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News

Christa Pike's failed execution in September has raised fresh questions about Tennessee's lethal injection execution protocol, which is in its fourth iteration in the past two decades.

Pike's was the second botched execution by Tennessee this year. She had been sentenced to death for her role in the 1995 torture and murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

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

Kit Thomas, the deputy chief of the capital habeas unit at the Federal Public Defender's Office in Nashville and a critic of the state's current protocols, told CBS News that the protocol has been reduced "both in length and in details." Thomas said she is most familiar with the protocols since 2018.

Prior to 2025, the Tennessee lethal injection protocols were laid out in detail over 100 pages and included extensive protocols about the various execution teams, their roles and responsibilities, the drugs used, established practices around IV lines and administering the lethal drugs.

But in the most recent version, released to the public early last year, there were…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/