Christa Pike Survived Lethal Injection. Death Row Attorneys Have Warned Tennessee May Get Drug on ‘Gray Market’

The allegation resurfaced after Christa Pike survived the state’s attempt to execute her with pentobarbital on Wednesday, Sept. 30

NEED TO KNOW

• Christa Pike survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her with pentobarbital on Sept. 30
• Attorneys for death row inmates previously alleged Tennessee appeared to have obtained its pentobarbital through the “gray market”
• Tennessee officials claim the pentobarbital used in the state’s executions was commercially manufactured, Nashville Public Radio reported

Questions about where Tennessee obtained the lethal injection drug used in the failed execution of Christa Pike were raised more than a year before she survived the state’s attempt to end her life with pentobarbital.

Attorneys representing Tennessee death row inmates previously alleged that the state appeared to have obtained pentobarbital through the “gray market,” citing manufacturer restrictions that they said prohibited the drug from being sold for use in executions.

The allegation was detailed in an April 10, 2025 request to Gov. Bill Lee seeking a reprieve for death row inmates Oscar Smith and Byron Black while a legal challenge to Tennessee’s then-new execution protocol proceeded.

“If the chemicals are manufactured, then it appears nearly certain that TDOC has procured the chemicals from the gray market,” Kelley Henry and Amy Harwell of the Federal Public Defender’s Capital Habeas Unit wrote in the request.

The attorneys wrote that every manufacturer of pentobarbital had placed distribution controls prohibiting sales of its products to corrections departments for executions. If Tennessee had obtained commercially manufactured pentobarbital, they argued, the drug would therefore have been acquired “outside the approved and tightly controlled commercial stream.”

Tennessee officials subsequently claimed that the pentobarbital used in the state’s executions was commercially manufactured, Nashville Public Radio reported in December 2025.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has, however, declined to publicly identify its pentobarbital supplier, according to the outlet. State law protects identifying information about people and entities involved in procuring drugs and other supplies used in executions.

The allegations have resurfaced following Tennessee’s unsuccessful attempt to execute Pike, 50, on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Pike remained alive after receiving two doses of pentobarbital and was ultimately transported from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to an off-site medical facility, according to the Associated Press and TDOC.

Her attorney Randy Spivey said in a press conference on Thursday that Pike remained alive and in critical condition while receiving “life-saving care.”

“It was not just inefficient, it was cruel, torturous and also predictable,” Spivey said.

Following the failed execution, TDOC said it had “followed every step” of Tennessee’s execution protocol and maintained that the lethal injection chemical used by the state “has consistently been effective.”

TDOC said the protocol did not permit additional procedures beyond those performed Wednesday night.

TDOC did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the source of the pentobarbital administered to Pike, whether it was tested for potency before the execution attempt and the previous allegations that Tennessee obtained pentobarbital through the gray market.

Tennessee adopted its current single-drug pentobarbital protocol after Lee paused executions in 2022 amid problems with the state’s previous lethal injection procedures.

An independent investigation subsequently found that drugs prepared for seven executions since 2018 had not been fully tested as required by the state’s protocol, the Associated Press reported.

When Tennessee released its new execution manual in January 2025, it was significantly shorter than its predecessor. The 44-page manual contained a single page addressing lethal injection chemicals, according to the AP.

The AP reported that the new manual contained no specific instructions for testing the drugs and eliminated a previous requirement that they come from a licensed pharmacist.

At the time, Henry told the AP that attorneys still did not know the source of Tennessee’s drugs, whether they were compounded or whether they had been diverted into a gray market.

The April reprieve request went further. Henry and Harwell argued that the state’s protocol contained inadequate safeguards to ensure the potency and proper storage of its lethal injection drugs.

The attorneys argued that without publicly disclosed testing requirements, they could not determine whether the drugs contained what the seller claimed or whether commercially manufactured pentobarbital had been stored under appropriate conditions after leaving the normal distribution chain.

Those concerns were raised against the backdrop of Tennessee’s earlier problems with lethal injection drugs.

The 2022 independent investigation found that chemicals used in the state’s execution process had not always undergone required testing, according to the AP. The investigation also revealed that officials had considered obtaining execution drugs through a veterinarian or importing them internationally.

Tennessee resumed executions under the new pentobarbital protocol in 2025.

The state has defended keeping information that could reveal its drug supplier confidential. In litigation over execution records in 2025, TDOC argued that even details that do not explicitly name a supplier, such as drug packaging, could potentially be combined with other information to identify the source, Nashville Public Radio reported.

The department argued that identifying a supplier could lead opponents of the death penalty to pressure companies involved in the supply chain to stop providing the drugs, jeopardizing Tennessee’s ability to obtain them.

Following Pike’s failed execution Wednesday, Lee ordered a third-party review and said Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026 would not take place this year, according to the AP.