Pike case: execution team did not practise inserting IV lines
A warden's deposition filed in a Nashville lawsuit reveals gaps in preparation. The former prisons chief ordered that no IV lines be inserted during practice. A hearing is set for Nov. 6.
Symbolic image · Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Attorneys for several Tennessee death row prisoners have filed a deposition from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution Warden Kenneth Nelsen in their lawsuit challenging the lethal injection protocol. In the November 2025 deposition – before the failed executions of Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike – he said then-Correction Commissioner Frank Strada directed the team not to insert IV lines during practice sessions. The team also did not practise for situations in which IV access proved difficult. In that case a doctor would be brought in to perform a cut-down, Nelsen said.
According to the deposition, IV insertions were part of practice under the previous protocol, but this was no longer standard under the 2025 protocol. Nelsen also said he paid team members and the execution doctor in cash. The plaintiffs want to add the two failed attempts and the deposition to their complaint. A hearing before Chancellor Russell T. Perkins in Davidson County Chancery Court is set for Nov. 6. The Department of Correction declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Christa Pike, sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, survived two doses of the drug in September. She is back in prison; her lawyers say she is talking in full sentences and walking more independently. They are seeking to have her sentence commuted to life in prison. Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions through the end of 2026 and ordered an independent review. Strada announced his resignation in early October.