Ethiopia Decides to Close Embassy in Asmara, Declares 10 Eritrean Diplomats Persona Non Grata

Addis Ababa, October 1, 2026 (ENA)—Ethiopia has decided to close its Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea, and declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa persona non grata and ordered them to leave the country within 48 hours.

In a statement issued today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the decision was taken in response to Eritrea’s direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia.

It added that ten Eritrean diplomats were declared persona non grata for their involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security, in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The diplomats are given 48 hours to leave Ethiopia.

The Ministry urged the Eritrean government to cease acts contrary to the principles governing relations between sovereign states.

Despite the measures, it said Ethiopia continues to value its historical, cultural and people-to-people ties with Eritrea and remains committed to peaceful coexistence, regional stability and integration.

The Ministry also reaffirmed Ethiopia’s commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and cooperation with countries in the Horn of Africa to advance lasting peace, security and regional integration.

Ethiopia Declares Egyptian Diplomatic Staff Member Persona Non Grata

Addis Ababa, October 1, 2026 (ENA)—Ethiopia has declared an Egyptian diplomatic staff member persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally notified the Egyptian Embassy in Addis Ababa that Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman, a member of Egypt’s diplomatic staff, has been declared persona non grata, the ministry said in a statement. 

“In accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Ministry hereby notifies the Embassy that Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman has been declared persona non grata. The Ministry expects the Embassy's diplomatic staff member to leave Ethiopia within Forty-Eight (48) hours from the date of this notification.”  

 The ministry said the decision was taken in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the international framework governing diplomatic relations between states.

According to the notification, the Egyptian diplomat is going to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours of the date of the communication.

The statement added that: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Addis Ababa the assurances of its highest consideration.”

Ethiopia Expels 10 Eritrean Diplomats as Tensions Between Neighbors Escalate

By SAMUEL GETACHEW

4:59 PM EDT, October 1, 2026

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats out of the country Thursday and closed its embassy in Eritrea, sharply escalating tensions between the neighbors hours after blasts were heard across the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and as fighting raged in the northern region of the country.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry gave the diplomats 48 hours to leave Addis Ababa, citing their “involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security.” Ethiopia last week accused Eritrea of financing rebels in the Tigray region, who took control of several towns in renewed fighting against federal forces.

Eritrea’s Foreign Ministry called the move “astounding” and said it had “no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails.”

An intelligence service official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that there had been three blasts in three different locations in Addis Ababa overnight, but declined to provide further details.

A diplomatic source who requested anonymity for his safety described hearing a blast at 7 p.m. near the defense headquarters, followed by a siren. Residents near the defense headquarters also said they heard a blast near a factory in the area past midnight.

It remains unclear whether the blasts were related to an attack or were part of training exercises at the defense headquarters.

The explosions came hours after the National Intelligence and Security Service banned the flying of drones in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas.

In Tigray, the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front recently took over the region’s main airport, forcing a suspension of flights.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front Chairperson, Debretsion Gebremichael, on Thursday said the fighting was a “continuation of the previous war” and that his fighters would keep attacking and defending Tigray from its enemies.

The United Nations has called for de-escalation of the fighting and dialogue between the government and seven opposition groups that recently formed an alliance to challenge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The renewed fighting has shattered a 2022 peace agreement that ended a devastating two-year war in Tigray. The TPLF is an armed political group based in Tigray, and for years it was the dominant party in a coalition that ruled Ethiopia between 1991 and 2018. It has been outlawed by Abiy’s government.

New fighting brings fresh hardships

Displaced people living in camps since the 2020 war in Tigray said Thursday that they could hear gunfire from kilometers (miles) away near the Hitsats camp in northwestern Tigray.

The camp is home to about 16,000 people who have been living there for six years and are now afraid they may be displaced again.

“We hear fighting supported by heavy artillery, and drones hover in the sky every day,” a resident told The Associated Press over the phone.

Residents in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, say communication, banking and other essential services have been disrupted by the fighting.

Abdelaziz Ahmed, 35, a merchant, said the lack of cash caused by disruptions to banking services was affecting his business.

“People cannot buy anything because they lack cash, so we cannot sell. My current stock won’t last more than a month. My only hope is that all these challenges pass and peace is restored in Tigray,” he said.

A taxi driver who declined to be named because of fears for his safety said fuel prices had doubled on the black market.

“The war has made life extremely difficult. We don’t even have money for food or rent,” he said.

DR Congolese Politician is Killed for Defending Ebola Efforts as Mistrust Complicates Response

By SEBASTIEN KITSA MUSAYI and EVE BRENNAN

6:18 PM EDT, September 30, 2026

BUTEMBO, Congo (AP) — Mourners gathered Wednesday to bury a Congolese politician who was beaten to death after publicly defending the government’s response to Ebola, a killing that highlights the mistrust health workers say is hampering efforts to slow the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.

Marie-Célestin Karondwa, a local official with Congo’s ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, was attacked Sunday at his home in Butembo, an Ebola hotspot in the eastern North Kivu province, after defending the government’s response efforts during a radio program, the party said.

“They beat him up and then set the house alight,” Sagesse Kavira, Karondwa’s granddaughter, told The Associated Press at his funeral on Wednesday. He later died from his injuries at a local hospital.

The killing follows a series of attacks on health workers and other responders as the Central African nation battles its 17th and deadliest Ebola outbreak, which has so far recorded over 8,000 cases including nearly 4,000 deaths.

Authorities this month launched a village-centered approach to fight the Ebola outbreak. But those efforts continue to face resistance from some residents who dismiss Ebola as a hoax amid a widespread distrust in the country’s government for various reasons, ranging from how it’s managed past Ebola outbreaks to chronic corruption.

Responders say skepticism about the disease has complicated efforts to work with residents, including in remote communities and emerging hot spots that already face shortages of medical supplies and healthcare workers.

The mistrust is particularly difficult to overcome in eastern Congo’s rebel-controlled territories, where decades of conflict with rebels as well as human rights abuses have left many residents wary of outsiders and state authorities.

The local politician killed in Butembo had been using the radio show to call on the public to obey response measures, particularly social distancing and handwashing, Jean-Baptiste Katsongo Lwatswa, first federal vice-president of UDPS in Butembo, told the AP.

“That is believed to have provoked the anger of certain young people,” he said.

Enoch Muhindo Balimatangi, a resident of Butembo, said there’s fear and mixed feelings about Ebola among locals. “Some say that the illness exists, while others refuse to accept that it does. That’s frightening!” he said.

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A key challenge in slowing this particular outbreak is the absence of approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus that is causing it. Clinical trials for those are currently ongoing in Ituri province, the epicenter.

In its latest situation report, the World Health Organization warned the disease remains serious and there are “persistent challenges in timely case detection and access to early and adequate patient care.”

WHO has also said the outbreak continues to outpace efforts to track and slow it, and is on track to exceed the deadliest on record, West Africa’s regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people.

—-

Brennan reported from Dakar, Senegal. Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo, contributed.

Zimbabwean Tycoon Killed in Helicopter Crash Had Cultivated Presidents as Friends

By Farai Mutsaka

1:33 PM EDT, October 1, 2026

HARARE (AP) — The death in a helicopter crash of Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo, his wife and three others has reverberated across government and industry circles on the continent, as investigators began examining what caused the aircraft to go down.

Family spokesperson Herbert Chivayo said the process of identifying the victims was “painful” because of the impact and damage of Wednesday’s fiery crash near the capital, Harare.

A government spokesperson and police initially put the death toll in the crash at six, but police said in a statement Thursday that there were five people on board who died, including two crew members. Police also formally identified Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, as among the victims in their new statement.

Chivayo was a close ally of Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and often posted pictures of encounters, including dinners, with heads of state from across Africa.

In a condolence message, Mnangagwa said he was “numbed” by the death, describing Chivayo as “consummately philanthropic.”

The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe said preliminary observations showed that the helicopter hit the ground, spilling fuel that ignited and burned surrounding grass. Officials said the cause of the crash had yet to be established. A black box was being examined, state broadcaster ZBC News reported. The mangled wreckage lay on the burnt grass as workers from a funeral parlor collected the victims’ remains.

Chivayo lived a lavish lifestyle

The grim scene was a stark contrast to the flamboyant public life the businessman had cultivated. Just hours before the crash, he posted photographs of two luxury vehicles he said he was gifting two of his lawyers, along with $750,000 in cash.

He ended the post with the words: “Saved the best for last.” The giveaways were typical of a man who made extraordinary wealth and generosity central to his public image. Over the years, Chivayo gave away dozens of luxury cars, buses, cash and other gifts to celebrities, church leaders, sports figures, politicians and social media followers, frequently broadcasting his largesse online.

But perhaps more striking than the cars was the company he kept.

Chivayo, 43, nurtured unusually close relationships with African political leaders, regularly posting photographs and videos of encounters with presidents including Mnangagwa, Kenya’s William Ruto, Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu and others.

In August, Chivayo posted a video showing Ruto driving him to a helicopter after attending a traditional engagement ceremony involving the Kenyan president’s daughter.

“I’ve lived large and had many different and exceptionally beautiful experiences in my opulent lifestyle, but certainly this was the first,” Chivayo wrote. Both Ruto, behind the wheel, and Chivayo are seen laughing, with Chivayo’s wife grinning from the back seat.

Ruto called him “a dear friend.”

Chivayo’s Rolls-Royces, private aircraft, designer shoes, luxury watches, shopping trips abroad and multimillion-dollar gifts were a constant presence on social media, while his relationships with presidents gave him visibility far beyond Zimbabwe.

Business dealings have raised eyebrows

He had received multiple government contracts, some of which drew controversy or allegations of fraud that were thrown out by courts or dismissed by investigating authorities.

On Zimbabwean social media, some people openly celebrated his death, citing his wealth and political connections as reasons for their anger over the country’s economic hardships and allegations surrounding his business dealings. One prominent news website ran the headline: “We are not mourning — Zimbabweans celebrate death of controversial businessman.”

Others pushed back against the celebrations. “What kind of people are we who celebrate someone’s death? It’s un-African,” opposition lawmaker Chalton Hwende wrote.

Christa Gail Pike Wasn't Tennessee's First Failed Execution This Year. Here's What to Know

Nation 

Oct 1, 2026 6:07 PM EDT

A failed execution in Tennessee is raising more questions about the state's capital punishment protocols after Christa Gail Pike survived two doses of a lethal injection Wednesday evening.

Pike, who was alive and snoring after officials administered both doses of pentobarbital, was taken to a hospital. Her lawyers said Thursday at a news conference that she is in critical condition and receiving life-saving care, but they do not know her prognosis.

"The state of Tennessee has shown us again that they are not capable of carrying out an execution consistent with basic human dignity," said Pike's lawyer Randy Pivey. "Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel and it was torturous. It was also predictable."

Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who said the incident was "deeply disturbing," halted executions for the remainder of the year and ordered a third-party review.

"Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state's most important responsibilities," Lee told reporters Thursday. He said Tennesseans expect death penalty sentences to be "carried out in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but effective, and that didn't happen.

He described Pike's botched execution as a "tragedy," and said he was "highly disappointed."

In a statement Wednesday, Tennessee's Department of Correction said it "followed every step" of the state's execution protocol.

"The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening," the statement said.

Pike's case is unique in more than one way, but it's not the first time an execution has been botched in Tennessee this year.

Here's what to know about Pike, Tennessee's execution protocol and other cases of botched executions.

What to know about Pike's case, sentencing

A jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to death in 1996.

She admitted to cutting Slemmer's throat, beating her, throwing asphalt at her head and taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir. A pentagram was also carved on Slemmer's body.

In 2001, Pike was convicted separately of attempted first degree murder after she assaulted a fellow prisoner.

Pike's execution had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. However, an appeals court halted the execution an hour before it was set to begin.

Pike's lawyers argued that the state had only recently changed its position on the veracity of her history of mental illness and sexual abuse. According to the defense, during her trial, the state had described Pike as a "'pathological liar' and suggested that she was making up her history of abuse and rape."

In Pike's clemency petition, which Lee denied on Monday, her lawyers detailed Pike being raped and physically abused as a toddler, child and teenager. Following the killing, mental health experts and the state's Department of Correction diagnosed Pike with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the pause later on Wednesday, allowing the execution to proceed in the evening. She would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in 200 years.

What is Tennessee's protocol for capital punishment?

Both Lee and the Department of Correction have asserted that officials followed the state's protocols in Pike's attempted execution.

Under Tennessee law, lethal injection is the primary method for carrying out a death sentence.

Executions in Tennessee resumed in 2025 after a three-year pause that Lee implemented after an independent review found the corrections department had carried out executions using untested drugs.

According to the state's lethal injection protocol, officials intravenously administer two 50 mL syringes of pentobarbital, a barbiturate drug that affects the brain and nervous system, before waiting for five minutes. If the prisoner has not died, the state can administer another set of injections.

The protocol does not detail what happens if a person doesn't die following the second dose.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, no prisoner in the modern era has survived the administration of lethal injection drugs.

Several prisoners on death row, including Pike, have sued the state over its protocol, which was established by Frank Strada, the corrections department's commissioner. Strada, who Lee appointed in January 2023, had previously served as commissioner in Arizona where he oversaw several botched executions.

The lawsuit argues that Tennessee switched from a three-drug protocol to a riskier one-drug protocol. According to the lawsuit, evidence shows that pentobarbital poses "a high risk of a tortuous death."

In January 2025, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinded the federal government's use of pentobarbital for executions.

What to know about other botched executions in Tennessee

In May, Tennessee called off Tony Carruthers' execution after officials were unable to establish an IV line despite attempting to do so for more than an hour. Carruthers' lawyers described him "wincing and groaning" while the officials tried to find a vein.

In a lawsuit, Carruthers' lawyers said the doctor who was tasked with establishing the IV hadn't placed one in a patient in over a decade and did not have hospital privileges.

Lee paused Carruthers' execution for a year, but did not call for a review or a halt to other executions.

Following Carruthers' botched execution, Republican state lawmakers called for Lee to commission an independent review.

In July, more than 50 medical professionals sent Lee a letter urging the governor to suspend executions until the corrections department could "demonstrate meaningful improvements in its planning, training, and operations around the entire execution process."

They cited Tennessee's requirement that health professionals participate in executions as contributing to the problem, arguing that medical ethics prohibit providers from participating in executions.

"This means that the health care professionals who agree to take part in Tennessee's executions are those willing to set aside their professional ethics," the letter said.

Despite this, in August, the state executed Anthony Darrell Hines who was convicted of murder in 1985.

Lawyers for Tennessee Woman in Botched Execution Say She’s Alive But in Critical Condition

By Adam Friedman

October 1, 2026 5:04 pm

 Emergency vehicles at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. The execution of death row inmate Christa Pike was halted nearly two hours after the state of Tennessee began the lethal injection protocol. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Lawyers for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike confirmed Thursday she is in critical condition and receiving life-saving medical care after her botched execution.

Pike was transported to a hospital Wednesday night after Tennessee halted her execution when two rounds of its lethal injection protocol failed. Media witnesses to the execution were told to leave the building when Pike could still be heard “snoring.”

Pike, 50, was set to be the first female put to death in Tennessee in nearly two centuries for the killing of her classmate Colleen Slemmer. Her lawyers are appealing to the court to stop her from being put to death after seeking a pause in the execution for a review of Pike’s history of sexual abuse and neglect as a child.

​Randy Spivey, one of Pike’s attorneys, said they had been warning of this exact outcome but that the court ignored it, adding that between Pike’s abuse as a child, solitary confinement in prison and now failed execution, she’s suffered more than any person should.

Gov. Bill Lee and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to give her a reprieve this week before the execution failed.

​“What she has endured over the past 30 years is in a class of its own,” Spivey said. “This should not happen again … the governor must commute her sentence now.”

When the execution failed Wednesday, Lee announced he would seek an independent investigation and pause all executions for the rest of 2026 but did not make an announcement about Pike’s sentence. Lee is term-limited and will leave office in January.

Pentobarbital, the Drug Used in Tennessee’s Failed Execution, Has Come Under Past Scrutiny

ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:23 PM EDT, October 1, 2026

The lethal drug administered in Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike has been used in multiple states that carry out the death penalty and by the U.S. government after President Donald Trump resumed federal executions during his first term.

Pike, 50, remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital were administered Wednesday, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. One of her lawyers said Thursday that she was being treated at a hospital.

Tennessee officials haven’t explained yet what went wrong during the execution.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review to determine what happened and said another scheduled execution in Tennessee will not take place this year.

What is pentobarbital?

Pentobarbital is a barbiturate, a class of drugs that depresses the central nervous system.

Approved medical uses include sedation, short-term treatment of insomnia, preparation for anesthesia and emergency control of certain severe seizures. It is also used in veterinary euthanasia.

In an overdose, it can produce coma, suppress breathing and cause circulatory collapse and death.

Why is it used in executions?

For years, lethal injections commonly used three drugs: an anesthetic, a paralytic that stopped breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

That method drew criticism because if the anesthetic failed, the paralytic could prevent a prisoner from communicating pain. It also became difficult to maintain after drugmakers restricted distribution for executions.

The pentobarbital protocol was adopted at the federal level during Trump’s first term to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s.

As with Tennessee’s guidelines, the federal death penalty protocol calls for administering a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital; in medical settings, patients typically receive a fraction of a gram.

Trump resumed the federal death penalty after an informal moratorium during previous administrations. The federal government used pentobarbital in 13 executions between 2020 and 2021, contributing to making Trump the most prolific execution president in over 130 years.

During the Biden administration, the Justice Department stopped executions with pentobarbital after a government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering.”

After Trump came back to power, the Justice Department in 2026 reauthorized the use of lethal injections with pentobarbital.

How do guidelines vary in different states?

Georgia and Texas use a similar protocol to Tennessee, administering a second dose only if the first is unsuccessful. South Carolina, which turned to pentobarbital in 2024, automatically gives inmates two 5-gram doses spaced about 10 minutes apart.

Lawyers for people on death row have argued that giving such a large dose twice was proof the condemned were dying a lingering death, still conscious and feeling like they were drowning when fluid rushed into their lungs.

But a South Carolina Department of Corrections attorney said inmates are unconscious in well under a minute and can’t feel anything. The heart may show an occasional flicker on a monitor, but that’s because it is the last organ to use the body’s stored oxygen and has residual electrical impulses.

When past lethal injection executions have gone wrong, it is usually because an IV line can’t be properly inserted and the execution is stopped before the drugs are given. There have also been cases of violent reactions or prolonged time passing before death when a new combination of drugs is used.

Witnesses to pentobarbital executions frequently report that inmates stop breathing and become still less than a minute after getting the drug.

What have experts said about the drug?

Experts quoted in the 2025 federal review argue pentobarbital can cause pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs that may create a sensation of suffocating.

The review concluded that “there remains significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single drug lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering” and advised that the government should “err on the side of humane treatment.”

Other specialists quoted in a report released by the second Trump administration said a lethal dose causes unconsciousness before that occurs.

‘It Was a Mess’: Tennessee Fails to Execute Woman After 2 Lethal Injections

Christa Pike’s attorneys said she was being treated at a hospital, but her condition is unknown. May Martinez, the mother of the murdered teenager Colleen Slemmer, called the failed execution “a mess.”

Tennessee death row inmate hospitalized after surviving two lethal injections

Oct. 1, 2026, 10:48 AM EDT

By Erik Ortiz, Abigail Brooks, Phil Helsel and Rebecca Cohen

An injection of a lethal drug failed to execute the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row Wednesday, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.

Attorneys for Christa Pike said early Thursday that she was being treated at a hospital, but they did not know her condition. A spokesperson for the Department of Correction did not answer an emailed question Wednesday evening about whether she was alive but said she was “transported to an off-site medical facility.”

Pike, 50, is the state’s only woman on death row. She was convicted of murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, 19, in 1995 and sentenced to death. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.

In a news conference Wednesday night, journalists who witnessed the failed execution described snoring and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her. At times, the curtain was closed and journalists could only hear sounds.

In a federal court filing seeking to halt her execution, Pike’s lawyers said witnesses saw executioners injecting “both syringes of lethal injection chemicals,” but that Pike remained alive.

They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice,” according to the lawyers.

In a phone interview with NBC News early Thursday, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, described the failed execution attempt.

“It was a mess,” she said.

Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, said in a statement that he was ordering “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” He added that the last remaining execution for this year in Tennessee will not be carried out as planned.

Lee told reporters Thursday morning that he did not know Pike’s current condition and lamented that he was “disappointed ... about what happened last night.”

He said there are still questions about what happened during the twice-failed execution and how it went wrong. As far as he knows, he said, the proper protocol was carried out.

“Tennesseans deserve a justice system that is fair, that’s consistent, that is faithfully administered,” he said. “My responsibility is to uphold the sentences that Tennessee juries have handed down, even when it’s difficult, and that is exactly what we intend to do in the days ahead.”

‘Nothing about today was normal’

An ambulance was seen arriving at the prison where Pike was to be executed and then leaving. Medical aid was being administered, according to online federal court records.

“It appeared that this did not go like they thought it was supposed to go,” said John North, an investigative producer at NBC affiliate WBIR in Knoxville. “But we don’t know that. When we left the building, so far as we knew, she was probably still alive.”

Tori Gessner, a reporter and anchor at WKRN-TV of Nashville who has witnessed five executions in the state, said at a news conference: “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.”

Media witnesses said the curtain to the death chamber opened for the first time at 7:26 p.m.

At 7:34 p.m., Pike was heard saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” Gessner said. Pike then talked about that spot on her arm and asked, “Does this happen like that?” Gessner added.

Pike’s lawyers said the second dose of the lethal injection drug was administered at about 8 p.m. before the curtain to the execution chamber was closed again. Media witnesses said they could still hear Pike snoring and the sound of doors opening and closing before they were eventually let out of the prison.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said the state “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office” and that “the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.”

It’s the second time an execution did not go as planned in Tennessee this year. Tony Carruthers, convicted in three 1994 killings, was granted a one-year reprieve after executioners in May could not find a vein for a backup IV.

“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” Pike’s attorneys said in a statement.

The process of the execution began after the Supreme Court vacated a lower court’s Wednesday morning order that had temporarily blocked it.

The high court’s decision hours later capped a flurry of last-minute legal maneuvering in a bid by Pike’s defense team to spare her life. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

Austin Sarat, a lawyer with expertise in failed executions, said that a situation like Pike’s is “quite unusual” and that there have been fewer than 10 true failed executions in the last 80 years. He said a failed execution differs from a botched execution, which is when something goes wrong with the execution procedure but the person still ends up dead.

The majority of failed executions on record were lethal injection attempts, but in all cases except Pike’s, the failures involved the administering doctor’s inability to find a vein, meaning the lethal drugs had not yet started to flow, Sarat said, calling Pike’s case “uncharted territory.”

Victim’s mother furious

“They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die,” said Martinez, who wanted the execution carried out and was furious with the governor, the director of the Department of Correction and the attorney general.

Martinez told NBC News that Pike never expressed remorse during Wednesday’s attempted execution. “Not nothing ... about what happened, you know, to Colleen,” Martinez said.

She criticized the communications from officials.

“They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left,” Martinez said.

“We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner,” she said. “And he said that it didn’t work ... and she’s on her way to the hospital.”

Asked what her message to the governor and attorney general was, Martinez was terse in her reply: “They f----- up.”

Pike was set to be the first woman in more than 200 years that the state has put to death, according to historical records.

Pike does not deny the brutal killing that saw her and two teenage accomplices work together to torture, slash and fatally beat Slemmer. The case became sensationalized when investigators said it was tied to the occult because someone had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and Pike bragged to another student that she had kept a fragment of the victim’s skull as a “souvenir.”

But Pike’s current supporters argue the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse. “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike has said.

Appeals court stayed execution based on child abuse claims

About an hour before her scheduled execution at 10 a.m. local time in Nashville, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it needed to review claims made by her lawyers. At issue was whether Pike could reopen a court proceeding centered around her allegations that she was sexually abused beginning when she was a child — abuse that the state did not dispute at a special hearing in August.

The appeals court in a split decision agreed to a “short” reprieve halting her execution “in order to properly analyze the parties’ fully briefed arguments and resolve the issues on the merits.”

In turn, the state attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the execution needed to go on to “avoid rewarding Pike’s abusive delay tactics.”

In their dissent, the three liberal justices wrote that vacating the lower court’s temporary stay of execution “interferes with the Sixth Circuit’s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim.”

“I see no reason to shortcircuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision,” Sotomayor wrote.

Lee and the Supreme Court had said this week they would not stop Pike’s execution.

Christa Pike letter

A letter Pike wrote before she learned Gov. Bill Lee denied clemency.via the Rev. Mikey Noechel.

Before she learned Monday that Lee would not intervene in her case, Pike wrote in a letter to NBC News, shared by her spiritual adviser: “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.”

“I am not afraid to die,” wrote Pike, who has been on death row for more than three decades. “I’m only nervous about the process.”

How Did Christa Pike Survive Two Lethal Injections of Pentobarbital?

A catheter carrying the drug may not have delivered the doses to Ms. Pike’s bloodstream, experts said. The drug itself may have been degraded.

New York Times

By Benjamin Mueller and Shaila Dewan

Oct. 1, 2026

6:30 p.m. ET

The execution team went through at least seven needles trying to find a vein suitable for delivering doses of a lethal drug to Tennessee inmate Christa Pike, her lawyers said on Thursday.

Ms. Pike, who survived the botched execution on Wednesday night, was left with blistering and burning around the intravenous insertion sites that the execution team ultimately used to deliver the drug, the lawyers added.

Those details reinforced the sense among outside medical experts that Ms. Pike had survived the procedure because the drug, pentobarbital, probably poured into tissue surrounding the insertion sites instead of entering her bloodstream.

That could have prevented the drug from reaching the levels needed in her circulatory system to stop her breathing.

The drug may nonetheless have lowered her oxygen levels or weakened her circulation enough to cause permanent brain damage. Any leak of the drug into her tissue could also have caused chemical burns.

Ms. Pike’s lawyers said she was in critical condition and receiving lifesaving medical care.

Stephen Ferrell, one of her lawyers, said that while details of the execution attempt were consistent with there having been problems with the intravenous delivery, a number of other factors could have been involved.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement on Wednesday night that it “had followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general’s office.” Officials did not answer questions on Thursday about what went wrong with the administration of the drug.

Medical experts said there were signs that the two intravenous catheters, rather than directing the drug into Ms. Pike’s bloodstream, had allowed it to leak into the tissue surrounding the insertion point.

That could have been because of how or where the catheters were inserted, the fragility of Ms. Pike’s veins, or for another reason. Her lawyers said that doctors had always had difficulty finding veins during her blood draws and that Ms. Pike has a blood disorder that exacerbates that problem.

During the execution attempt, they added, Ms. Pike even tried to help the staff place the two IV lines.

“She over and over again said, ‘Please, try up on my shoulder higher, please try here, please try here,’” Randy Spivey, another of her lawyers, said. He added that Ms. Pike thanked them once staff members thought they had established the two lines.

Instances in which intravenous drugs leak into tissue under the skin are known as “IV infiltration,” and have been cited in past botched executions, including ones that caused extensive chemical burns.

Experts said that experienced doctors in a medical setting would typically be able to recognize signs of an IV infiltration as it occurred.

Members of the news media who served as witnesses to the execution attempt said that Ms. Pike at one point described a burning spot in her arm that felt as if it were going to burst and asked if that was normal.

“The pain in her arm should have been a bright red flag that the IV was infiltrating,” said Dr. Mark Heath, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology at the Emory University School of Medicine who said that he had previously been retained by Ms. Pike’s lawyers as a medical expert, said that such an event would have caused the type of reaction that witnesses described.

The result, he said, could have been a highly alkaline solution leaking into Ms. Pike’s arm. “Essentially, they’ve injected bleach into the tissue of her arm,” Dr. Zivot said.

He added that he was speaking on his own behalf and not for Ms. Pike’s legal team, and that he had no direct knowledge of what happened during the execution attempt.

Having examined Ms. Pike’s medical records before the execution attempt, Dr. Zivot said that she was also susceptible to an IV infiltration. Ms. Pike’s lawyers had previously argued that the procedure could be agonizing for her in part because she has small veins.

“Her venous system was small, and there could be some fragility there,” Dr. Zivot said. “You push a lot of a caustic substance into a small vein like that, under pressure, it’s going to blow.”

He said chemical properties of the lethal drug, pentobarbital, mean that it can burn tissue and skin during executions.

Pentobarbital is a barbiturate that can treat seizures; it works by depressing activity in the nervous system. It is a mainstay drug for euthanizing animals. The drug has also been used in states with legal medical aid in dying.

Its main effect is to shut down electrical activity in the brain, including neurons in the brainstem that control breathing. The body enters a coma-like state, followed by respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.

The federal government adopted single-drug pentobarbital for lethal injections during the first Trump administration.

Under President Biden, the protocol was rescinded after a review by the Justice Department in January 2025 concluded that there remained “significant uncertainty” about whether using the drug for lethal injections “causes unnecessary pain and suffering.”

President Trump’s current administration has reinstated its use, and has said it will also use firing squads.

In Ms. Pike’s case, medical experts said it was also possible that there had been something wrong with the pentobarbital itself.

The primary manufacturer of pentobarbital has restricted the drug’s use in executions, the Justice Department review noted. As a result, states have turned to chemical companies and compounding pharmacies, which are more loosely regulated.

“Is it possible that the pentobarbital itself was somehow not constituted properly?” Dr. Zivot said. “Could it have degraded? Could it have expired? All of those things are possible.”

Almost as soon as lethal injection was first adopted in the United States in the late 1970s as a more medicalized, less painful method of execution, there were prolonged or botched executions.

In part, that was because the injections were often administered by correctional workers with limited medical training. Most doctors and anesthesiologists declined to advise or participate on ethical grounds.

In 2009, the maker of one of the key drugs, sodium thiopental, stopped production in the United States. Other drug companies prohibited the use of their products for executions.

States began scrambling to obtain the drugs, turning to compounding pharmacies and resorting to legally questionable arrangements like loaning the drugs to one another and importing drugs labeled for veterinary use. At one point, the Drug Enforcement Administration even seized Georgia’s supply of lethal injection drugs.

Prisoners argued in court that lethal injection did not eliminate pain and suffering, but only masked it. “It is not the most humane, it is the most humane-looking,” said Corinna Lain, a law professor and the author of “Secrets of the Killing State: the Untold Story of Lethal Injection,” published last year.

In response to the controversies, states shrouded the process in secrecy, passing laws that kept the public from learning details such as how the drugs are obtained and what dosage is used.

Ms. Pike’s lawyers said on Thursday that they hoped records would be preserved that would allow them to learn how her execution had gone wrong. They said they had long warned in court that Ms. Pike’s medical conditions could cause problems, but that those warnings went unheeded.

Mr. Spivey, her lawyer, said that among the at least seven needles used to try to establish an IV line in Ms. Pike’s left arm alone was one that appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt.

Whatever the reason the execution failed, medical experts said, the possibility that Ms. Pike had suffered the effects of a nonfatal dose of pentobarbital for an extended period created a risk for lasting brain injury.

“She could be facing profound medical complications,” Dr. Zivot said.

Benjamin Mueller reports on health and medicine. He was previously a U.K. correspondent in London and a police reporter in New York.

Shaila Dewan is a Times reporter covering criminal justice — policing, courts and prisons — across the country.