Nardine Saad
BBC News

President Donald Trump has long been a major supporter of the death penalty, describing capital punishment as "an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens".

In 2020, during his first term, he ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty, by ordering 13 executions over a six month period.

While the moratorium returned under President Biden, on the first day of Trump's second term in 2025, he signed an executive order that re-instated the death penalty.

There were a total of 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, a marked increase from the 25 executions carried out in 2024.

But about 40% of the deaths were in one state, Florida, making the Sunshine State the biggest factor contributing to the US's rise in executions. Just over halfway into 2026, 12 of the 19 executions occurred in Florida.

That, experts say, is because of one man: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

"He is the reason we are seeing a record number of executions. He is the reason why Florida is an outlier compared to the rest of the United States," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI).

DeSantis has been behind changes to laws that make it easier to carry out executions.

In 2023, Florida lowered the legal threshold for capital punishment by reducing the number of jurors required to recommend the death penalty in the trial phase of court cases, from a unanimous 12 to eight.

You can read more on this here.

Pike grew up in Beckley, a small, working-class city in southern West Virginia. Her parents, Carissa Hansen and Glenn Pike, were alcoholics who neglected her.

She told journalist Helen Roberts, who interviewed Pike on death row 20 years ago, that she did not have "any love", apart from her grandmother who died of cancer when she was 12, setting off a rage inside her, alongside suicidal thoughts.

Pike said she was raped for the first time when she was 11 by a neighbour and then by a stranger when she was 17. She joined the Knoxville Job Corps when she was 18 and told Roberts she hoped to become a nurse.

Roberts described a 30-year-old Pike as being very well put together and seeming very eager to please.

Read more about what she had to say about Pike here.

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
Live reporter

Pike's survival from lethal injection has been described by some experts as unprecedented.

Deborah Denno, a criminologist and professor at Fordham Law School whose research includes the death penalty, said she was "absolutely astonished" by the latest development. In previous cases where prisoners survived, executioners had failed to inject the incarcerated person's veins, she told me.

Pike "is the only person for whom some kind of toxin has been injected," she said. "They did everything they were supposed to do as part of the execution process, and it simply didn't work... This has never happened before."

Dr Joel Zivot, an Atlanta-based anaesthesiologist who previously advised Pike's defence team before her botched execution, also said the situation was novel.

He opposes the use of lethal injections and describes it as cruel.

"In fact, pretty well everyone, except Christa" dies from lethal injections, he told me. "So, the fact that she survived it ... was unusual".

But Dr Zivot, who has not examined Pike since the failed execution, warns there is still a lot of uncertainty about what lasting effects the lethal injections would have on her and what a full recovery would look like.

"I would not, in any way, say at this point that all the big risks are behind her," he said.

Kayla Epstein
reporting from New York

Image source, Reuters

As we heard the state's lawyers say in court earlier, there is not currently an order for another execution of Christa Pike, but they could not tell the judge whether one wouldn’t hypothetically be issued tomorrow.

Pike's lawyers are trying to avert a second execution attempt, and that bid will likely work its way through US court systems.

Historically, the US Supreme Court - whose decisions guide lower court judges' application of the law and US constitution - has not halted second attempts at executions.

In 2024, it allowed Alabama to proceed with a second execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, using an experimental oxygen deprivation method, after their plan to kill him by lethal injection failed two years earlier.

It is feasible Pike's case could eventually end up before the justices again, attorneys who work with death row inmates tell me. The Supreme Court weighed in on Pike's case before, allowing Tennessee to go through with its first execution attempt.

One non-legal factor at play: the political fallout from this incident.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has so far resisted calls from Pike's lawyers to use his commutation powers. But it has already been announced that Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down.

The state worked to save Pike's life, just minutes after attempting to take itpublished at 19:45 BST

19:45 BST

Gary O'Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent

Image source, Reuters

It emerged yesterday that Christa Pike is now awake and able to speak. Her representatives are renewing calls for her death sentence to be commuted to life in prison, saying the state should now "take death off the table".

Despite two lethal injections of the execution drug pentobarbital last Wednesday evening, Pike survived and was rushed to hospital – the state attempting to save her life, just minutes after it had attempted to take it.

A court has now granted Pike's lawyers' request to preserve documentation and other evidence from around the time of the failed execution as well as independent testing. Lawyers for Tennessee say such orders are unnecessary as procedures already secure evidence.

For days, Pike’s condition was considered critical, but her lawyers say she is now awake and speaking, and they managed to see her yesterday afternoon after a two and a half hour wait – claiming obstacles are still being put in their way accessing their client.

Pike is the second case of a failed execution in Tennessee this year, prompting the state’s governor to order an independent review into what went wrong, pausing all executions for the rest of the year.

Grace Eliza Goodwin
Reporting from New York

Image source, Reuters

We've heard a few more details about Pike's current condition since she woke up in hospital last night and began speaking, according to her legal team.

We now know...

• When Pike first regained consciousness, she asked: "Where am I and who are you?"
• She has asked more questions since waking up, including about the family of the woman she murdered, Colleen Slemmer
• Pike is still experiencing cognitive impairment, but is "aware of what they did to her"
• Pike woke up in hospital "angry and confused" with a tube down her throat, surrounded by strangers
• She has a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia and is not able to swallow yet

And what we still don't know...

• If Pike will regain function of her arms. Her legal team said both remain "tremendously swollen"
• What other long-term health complications will result from this botched execution. Her lawyers believed she was "brain dead" as of Monday and that life support would be removed the following day
• What level of speech Pike will regain, as she's currently "speaking limitedly", her lawyer said

Ihnen says this is the first step of a long legal battle, citing previous legal challenges filed before the failed execution.

He says those legal actions warned Tennessee officials of possible complications with an execution. He says now that Pike is awake and communicating, she will able to give attorneys consent on what to do next.

And with those closing remarks, the news conference on the courthouse's steps ends.

Image source, Reuters

The news conference has now ended, but stick with us as we bring you key updates.

Spivey says he is not going to comment on the medical care that Pike is currently receiving, but refers to her still being shackled to her hospital bed.

"She is shackled at her feet and on her right arm to the bed," he says.

He adds that he particularly noticed the swelling around her arms, describing it as "extraordinary".

"Her hands looked like if you were to blow up a surgical glove."

A member of Pike's legal team, Randy Spivey, says that when Pike woke up on Tuesday, her first question was: "Where am I and who are you?"

Since then, she has asked a number of questions, Spivey says, including about the family of Colleen Slemmer, the woman she murdered three decades ago.

There is still cognitive impairment, he says, but "she is very aware of what they did to her", in regards to the execution attempt.

Pike helped the execution team find a vein, she was kind and polite until she was injected, her lawyers say.

Then she woke up in a hospital with a tube down her throat and people she didn't know.

"We don't know the toll all of this will take" on her mental health, Spivey says, noting how she was "angry and confused".

"What happened to Christa was exactly what the state was warned would happen," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

Randy Spivey, another attorney for Pike, says it was his team's understanding that she was brain dead on Monday night and life support would be removed the next day.

However, he says in a "shock to everyone", she woke up and began to talk on Tuesday.

He says she has a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia and is not able to swallow yet, with both of her arms and hands being "tremendously swollen".

"Christa has a long road to recovery," Spivey says.

He describes Pike as a "survivor", adding she has survived a suicide attempt, child sexual abuse, the rapes of multiple men and now lethal injections.

Image source, Reuters

Attorney Luke Ihnen says today's hearing is just "the first step of many" to preserve his client Christa Pike's constitutional rights after the "unprecedented botched execution".

He reiterates that his team has, at this point, not asked the state to turn over any evidence from the attempted execution, only preserve it.

"Today's hearing was about transparency, about why Christa, the courts, the media, and the public should not simply take the state's word about what happened last Wednesday," Ihnen says.

He adds: "Their word is shrouded in secrecy, in legal jargon, in attempts to obfuscate and obscure what really happened."

The hearing for the emergency motion filed by Christa Pike's legal team has now ended.

Lawyer's representing Pike are now speaking at a news conference, please stick with us for updates.

You can also follow by pressing watch live above.

Kayla Epstein
reporting from New York

Image source, Reuters

We've had a lot of technical back and forth in today's hearing, but here's what you need to know.

• Pike's lawyers secured a legal win today, convincing the judge to order the state to preserve the broadest amount of evidence possible from Pike's botched execution
• This order will include both physical evidence - like IVs, syringes and medical documents - as well as communications and surveillance video surrounding the execution
• The judge said she would issue a written order soon, which would make her decision official. The evidence preservation could help Pike during ongoing legal action
• Pike’s attorneys also received more detailed protocols to request a visit with her while she remains in the hospital
• The state’s attorney also demonstrated just how uncertain Pike’s future remains. He confirmed that there was not currently an order for another execution, but he could not tell the judge whether one wouldn’t hypothetically be issued tomorrow
• The state of Tennessee has currently paused its remaining executions until the end of the year in the wake of Pike’s botched procedure

One of the issues Pike's lawyers raised in court today is the difficulty they have had getting access to visit Pike while she's been in hospital.

The judge, Chancellor l'Ashea Myles, says she will not make a decision today on Pike's lawyers' request to let Pike use the tablet she had used in prison while she's in hospital. Myles asked the state to provide more information on how the tablet works and if it can be used outside the prison.

She also said Pike's lawyers need to communicate with the warden at least two hours ahead of a visitation or communication time, and the warden then has two hours to respond to that request.

Access to Pike should be handled as if she was still in prison, and her being in hospital doesn't mean she should have less access to her attorney, Myles says.

The judge says items from the failed execution - such as drugs, syringes and tubing that are in the state's possession - must be retained "as a primary matter".

"Anything that was in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained," she says.

She adds this includes recordings of the evening itself and any communications on the events, as well as information on the ability to access veins or "deviation from the protocol".

"Frankly, the state will have no problem doing this because you all are already doing that," she says.

She also asks for any documentation on Pike's psychological condition prior to, during and after 30 September and any other state actors who were called when the decision was made to call ambulatory services.

She advises the state to take "special care" not to misplace or accidentally delete any information that may be pertinent to the litigation.

Image source, Reuters

Chancellor I'Ashea Myles says she will grant Pike's attorneys the motion to preserve all evidence.

She makes it clear that she's taking a broad definition of what Tennessee authorities have to preserve.

She says she will write and issue her own order, and it will take effect when she has written and signed it, she says.

“Anything that was in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained," the judge says, including waste, like packaging, inserts, and labels.

"We want all of it," Pike's lawyer Luke Inhen says regarding the evidence from Pike's failed execution, hammering home the central point he has made throughout this hearing.

Not preserving everything would cause harm to Pike, he argues.

He concludes with that, and the judge begins speaking.

It appears there are some technical difficulties with the livestream from the courtroom.

We're working to bring you the latest - stick with us.