At One Time New York State Conducted Brutal Executions On Death Row

On Wednesday September 30, 2026, the State of Tennessee failed to execute death row inmate Christa Pike. Pike was administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital and somehow managed to survive. Now all executions in Tennessee have been paused until an investigation is completed.

This got me thinking of New York and all of the cases that have come and gone through our legal system over the years. Did New York State ever carry out a death sentence execution? If so, did the procedure ever fail? Here's what we know.

A long prison corridor with rows of metal doors viewed through dark bars

Back in 1995, in the Tennessee case, then 18-year-old Christa Pike got into a fight with a 19-year-old girl named Colleen Slemmer because Pike thought Colleen was trying to steal her boyfriend. Ultimately Pike and her boyfriend tricked Colleen into walking into the woods where they brutally killed her.

A jury of 12 citizens decided Pike should be sentenced to the death penalty. Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, before the execution failed this week.

Erik S. Lesser, Getty Images

New York State had prisoners on Death Row up until 2007 but hasn't had the Death Penalty since 1976. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, prior to the invention of the electric chair most New York executions were carried out by hanging.

The State of New York also carried out the sentence by burning at the stake, death by firing squad, and even the breaking wheel, which was a brutal execution device. The prisoner was tied to a large wooden cartwheel, with their limbs stretched out. An executioner would then break the victim's bones, one limb at a time.

Hulton Archive, Getty Images

In 2008 New York Governor David Paterson issued an executive order requiring the removal of all execution equipment from state facilities.