The execution of a double murderer who bailed one of his victims out of jail only for the man to be shot dead — and then killed his sister when she went looking for him — has been put on hold after Tennessee's botched attempt to lethally inject Christa Pike for her role in the "satanic" torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.Gov.Bill Lee halted the death penalty across the state for the rest of the year — but there was only one scheduled, the Dec.
3 execution of convicted double murderer Gary Wayne Sutton.His uncle and co-defendant, James Dellinger, died of natural causes on death row in 2023.FORMER KNOXVILLE POLICE CHIEF SAYS INVESTIGATORS ARE STILL HAUNTED BY COLLEEN SLEMMER'S MURDER 31 YEARS LATERGary Wayne Sutton pictured in a mugshot taken on Nov.11, 2025, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee.
(Tennessee Department of Correction)Sutton has maintained his innocence — but in separate trials, he was convicted in the murders of Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam, a brother and sister who were killed on Feb.21 and 22, 1992.Sutton, who months earlier had beaten up Griffin's brother, went drinking with Dellinger and Griffin at a bar called Howie's Hideaway on Feb.
21, 1992, according to court records reviewed by Fox News Digital.After they left, they got in a fight, and Sutton and Dellinger left Griffin on the roadside.He encountered a passing driver who flagged down a police officer, according to court documents.CHRISTA PIKE'S BOTCHED LETHAL INJECTION TAKES FOCUS OFF VICTIM, JEOPARDIZES EXECUTION: FORMER POLICE CHIEFChrista Gail Pike appears remotely from Deborah K.
Johnson Rehabilitation for her hearing in Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tenn., on Aug.11, 2026.
(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)The responding officer reported that Griffin was "on the verge of tears" and shirtless with "scrapes and scratches" on his upper body and a cut behind is ear.Griffin claimed he had gotten into "an ...