Christa Pike, 50, spent 30 years in Riverbend Prison in the US state of Tennessee. In 1996, she was sentenced to death for the murder of a classmate. Baek was 18 years old at the time. Her death sentence was scheduled to be carried out on the evening of September 30, 2026.
What happened during the execution of the death sentence?
But what happened next was described by media representatives and lawyers as chaotic and traumatic: Tennessee used a relatively new protocol based on an overdose of the powerful anesthetic pentobarbital. But after she was given the dose, Pike remained conscious and complained of severe pain in her arm. The prison staff gave her a second dose. But Bayek survived this dose as well.
Since the implementation of the execution order legally ended at midnight, the prison administration was forced to stop the execution process. Christa Pike was taken to hospital. Her health condition remains unclear.
As a result, Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended with immediate effect all other executions scheduled for 2026 in the state and ordered a comprehensive and independent investigation into the incident. This incident has reignited debate about the reliability and potential cruelty of toxic injection.
Where does the death penalty still apply in the United States?
In the United States, the death penalty is still legal in 2026 in 27 states as well as at the federal level and in the military. But in reality it is only actually implemented in a few states. More than half of the executions in 2026 took place in Florida, as well as Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and Arizona.
On the other hand, 23 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., have abolished the death penalty, while in four other states, California, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, there is an effective moratorium on its implementation. In many other states, such as Kansas or Wyoming, the death penalty is still provided for in law but has not been implemented for decades.
How are executions carried out?
Lethal injection is the main method used nationwide to carry out executions. All 30 executions so far this year in the United States have been carried out in this way, either using pentobarbital or a combination of several drugs.
However, lethal injection is statistically the most error-prone method of execution: errors occur in about 7 percent of executions, leading to serious complications. There are also other methods that are legally permitted, depending on the state, such as gas suffocation or the electric chair. Executions by shooting are also permitted in five states and at the federal level.
Why do mistakes happen repeatedly?
Because official medical associations such as the American Medical Association prohibit their members from participating in executions, injections are often performed by prison staff who have not received adequate medical training. Attempts to access a suitable vein often fail and in individual cases executions have had to be halted for this reason.
In addition, pentobarbital is at the center of intense controversy in the United States. It was originally developed as a sleep and sedation drug or to treat epilepsy but is now used in extremely high doses in executions to paralyze the central nervous and respiratory systems. However, this has repeatedly led to serious complications related to the dosage and method of use.
Who supplies the poison used in executions?
The reason for this is that almost all European and American pharmaceutical companies categorically refuse to use their drugs to carry out the death penalty. Moreover, the European Union has imposed strict controls on the export of drugs that can be used in lethal injections. Since American prisons are no longer able to purchase pentobarbital on the regular market, they often turn to what are known as compounding pharmacies.
In the United States, medications are usually subject to stringent inspections by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure their purity, potency, and sterility. However, compounding pharmacies that manufacture prescription drugs are often subject to much less stringent oversight by states. To protect pharmacies from complaints, boycotts, or losing their customers, many American states have issued laws prohibiting the disclosure of the names of these pharmacies. The identity of the supplier of the poison remains unknown to the public, to the prisoners' lawyers, and often even to the courts.
What problems arise during the mixing process?
The biggest problem is that, due to the boycott of major pharmaceutical companies, these pharmacies are often forced to purchase chemical components or substitutes that have not undergone sufficient testing necessary to make pentobarbital from unreliable sources. These pharmacies then mix the ingredients to obtain the drug for the death injection in a highly concentrated form in their own laboratories.
However, if contaminated or very old chemicals are used, or in the wrong doses, the mixed medicine may cause unbearable pain to the prisoner instead of painlessly anesthetizing him.
The recurring complications that occur during the execution of death sentences were not the only reason that prompted the US government under Joe Biden to issue a decision to suspend death sentences at the federal level and conduct a review of the relevant procedures. But in one of his first steps after taking office, US President Donald Trump canceled this moratorium again shortly after his re-election, which sparked controversy again.
What are the criticisms of lethal injection?
Human rights organizations have long rejected the death penalty in general and the use of lethal injection in particular. Criticism of this allegedly “more humane” type of execution method has intensified significantly in recent years. According to a poll conducted by Gallup in June 2026, the percentage of Americans who consider the death penalty morally acceptable fell to a historic low of 52 percent.
Dr. Joel Zivot, a well-known anesthesiologist from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, examined numerous autopsy reports after executions and in 2024 stated in a federal court in Kansas: “Dying this way is like drowning in your own blood.”
There was also criticism from the US Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). In June 2026, the Center noted in a report that: “Every state that still carries out the death penalty now has a law that protects important information related to executions, such as the source of the drugs used in lethal injection and the identity and training of execution team members.” The report adds that the public finds itself "faced with more questions than answers about how elected officials used taxpayer dollars to carry out this horrific punishment."
