Botched Christa Pike execution buys time for another Tennessee death row inmate

A Tennessee death row inmate has been given more time to live after the botched execution of Christa Pike, as Governor Bill Lee paused executions scheduled before the end of the year.

Gary Wayne Sutton, who was due to be executed on December 3, is the only inmate affected. Pike was injected with two rounds of lethal drugs last week but did not die, leaving her unconscious and hospitalised.

Sutton has been on death row since being convicted of the February 1992 murders of siblings Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam.

The New York Post reports Sutton, James Dellinger and Griffin went drinking, and a fight broke out. Griffin was picked up by police for public intoxication, and they bailed him out. Half an hour later, witnesses heard three gunshots near where Griffin was later found dead from a shotgun blast to the head.

Branam was later found dead, her badly burned body in a scorched car. Co-defendant Dellinger was sentenced to death but died of natural causes on death row. Sutton maintains his innocence and has no new execution date.