The failed execution of Christa Pike has prompted Tennessee to postpone the scheduled lethal injection of another death row prisoner who was only weeks from execution.
Gary Wayne Sutton, 57, was due to die on December 3 for the 1992 killings of siblings Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam. He has spent more than 30 years on Tennessee’s death row.
His execution was suspended after Pike remained alive during Tennessee’s attempt to execute her on Wednesday, even after she was administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
Governor Bill Lee has paused all remaining executions in the state and ordered a comprehensive, independent examination of Tennessee’s lethal-injection procedures following the unprecedented incident.
As a result, Sutton, who has consistently maintained that he is innocent, will not be put to death on the date originally set.
‘This news gives us little joy, because nobody should be forced to suffer the way Christa Pike did this week and Tony Carruthers did in May,’ Sutton’s legal team said.
‘Still, we are relieved that Governor Lee is taking the deep problems with the state’s execution protocols seriously, and we are thankful that Gary’s execution has been paused.’
Pike, 50, remains in critical condition at a hospital, where she is receiving what officials have described as ‘life-saving care’ after the botched execution.
Gary Wayne Sutton, 57, has spent three decades on Tennessee’s death row for the 1992 murders of siblings Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam, but has consistently maintained his innocence
Christa Pike remains in critical condition and is receiving lifesaving care after execution staff used at least seven needles while attempting to inject her, according to her lawyers
Pike had been set to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries for the brutal 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Instead, execution personnel struggled to secure intravenous access, reportedly using at least seven needles in Pike’s left arm before the lethal drugs were delivered.
Pike said her arm felt as if it were going to ‘burst open,’ while her attorney, Randy Spivey, said he saw her right arm turn purple.
Witnesses said Pike eventually began snoring, yet remained alive well beyond the point at which she was expected to die.
Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler, who witnessed the attempted execution, said Pike was ‘loudly snoring, clearly very alive’ when journalists were finally escorted from the chamber.
Pike was later taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville to a nearby hospital for treatment.
‘This failed attempt is the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,’ Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robin Maher said.
Pike’s attorneys are now urging Lee to commute her death sentence, arguing that she has already been subjected to an attempted execution.
Pike sang, groaned and snored during more than 90 minutes in the death chamber, pictured, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
Pike was sentenced to death at age 20 in 1996. She is pictured crying during her sentencing hearing
Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital during her execution on September 30 in Tennessee. She is now unconscious in a guarded hospital room and may never recover
Sutton, meanwhile, has unexpectedly been spared from facing Tennessee’s execution team – at least for now.
He and his uncle James Dellinger were sentenced to death over the killings of Griffin, 24, and Branam, 34.
Griffin was found shot in the head near Little River on February 24, 1992. Five days later, Branam’s body was discovered inside her burned-out vehicle.
Dellinger died of natural causes on death row in 2023 at age 71.
Sutton has maintained that he did not commit the murders, and his lawyers have stepped up efforts to stop his execution as the December date approaches.
‘Prosecutors never established a motive for Sutton to kill Griffin, and they offered no physical evidence connecting Sutton to the crime,’ his attorney has said.
His legal team has also described the case as ‘riddled with errors’ and has sought an evaluation to determine whether Sutton has an intellectual disability.
The Supreme Court has ruled that people with intellectual disabilities cannot constitutionally be executed.
The scandal also led Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to announce that he is resigning and will step down later this month
A judge ordered Sutton to undergo an evaluation, while a decision remains pending over whether evidence concerning the claim will be heard.
But the latest delay has brought renewed anguish for Griffin and Branam’s relatives, who have spent decades waiting for the sentence to be carried out.
‘I just wish they did life without parole so we don’t have to sit here and go through this every so often,’ a member of the victims’ family tearfully told WBIR.
‘But back then we wanted the death sentence for them because of what they’ve done and now we still have to live it.’
Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada announced his resignation on Saturday, saying that stepping aside was ‘in the best interests’ of Tennessee and describing the investigation into the procedure as ‘entirely appropriate and necessary.’
