Thirty years after being sent to death row for the brutal torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, Christa Pike has plunged Tennessee’s capital punishment system into uncharted legal and political chaos following a botched lethal injection attempt that left her alive and able to walk and talk in limited capacity one week post-procedure.
The botched procedure, which delivered two full lethal doses of pentobarbital to Pike without ending her life, is not an isolated failure for Tennessee’s capital punishment program. Back in May, state officials also aborted the planned execution of Tony Carruthers after failing to locate a usable vein for injection, granting him a one-year temporary reprieve. In response to Pike’s botched attempt, Governor Bill Lee has launched an independent investigation into the state’s execution protocols and suspended all scheduled executions through the end of 2025, leaving Pike’s ultimate fate trapped in a murky legal limbo.
At a recent court hearing, state attorneys confirmed that any decision to schedule a second execution would rest with the Tennessee Supreme Court, while Pike’s legal team is pushing aggressively to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Governor Lee, who holds statutory power to grant clemency, has so far declined to signal his position on the request.
To understand the context of the crime that put Pike on death row: Slemmer was killed in 1995 by Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, who was a minor at the time of the murder. Shipp was spared the death penalty and remains incarcerated for his role in the killing.
Legal experts interviewed by the BBC have outlined a range of possible outcomes for the unprecedented situation, each carrying significant legal and political hurdles. If the Tennessee Department of Correction chooses to attempt a second lethal injection, the state will almost certainly face immediate constitutional challenges over the practice’s violation of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Stephen Ross Johnson, a Tennessee-based defense attorney and president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, noted that two botched executions in a single year gives defense attorneys broad legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s entire lethal injection protocol. Even if the state narrows its challenge to Pike specifically, her pre-existing medical conditions create additional legal barriers. Pike’s legal team warned officials before the first attempt that her small veins and thrombocytosis, a condition that causes excessive blood clotting, would complicate the injection procedure. Johnson argues that the combination of this known risk and the botched first attempt makes it nearly impossible for the state to justify a second lethal injection in court.
Another option floated by some state political leaders is switching to an alternative execution method. High-profile Tennessee Republicans have already called for drastic changes: U.S. Senate Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor in next month’s state election, has publicly called for bringing back the electric chair, while Congressman Tim Burchett has introduced legislation to reinstate hanging as an execution method.
Vanderbilt University law professor Chris Slobogin explained that Tennessee could technically use the electric chair for Pike because her crime was committed in 1995, before the state updated its execution laws to limit methods. However, state law requires that Pike voluntarily waive her right to lethal injection in writing for an alternative method to be used, a step she is extremely unlikely to take voluntarily. Switching methods would also require navigating a maze of additional legal approval, including sign-off from the governor’s office and potentially the state legislature, adding months if not years of delay to any proceedings.
Even if the state clears those procedural hurdles, experts say there is a scenario where Pike could never be executed at all, regardless of method. Her current exact medical condition remains undisclosed, and there is growing concern that the botched lethal injection may have caused irreversible brain damage. Under U.S. constitutional law, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment to execute a prisoner who is mentally incompetent and unable to understand the reason for their execution. This standard has historically applied to prisoners with advanced dementia or severe psychosis, but experts say it could extend to Pike if her brain damage leaves her mentally incapacitated.
There is recent national precedent for both alternative execution methods and clemency after botched procedures. In 2024, Alabama successfully carried out an execution using nitrogen hypoxia after failing to complete a planned lethal injection, setting a national precedent for last-minute method changes. Conversely, Alabama also granted clemency to death row inmate Doyle Hamm after a failed two-hour execution attempt where officials could not place an IV line; the state ultimately agreed to commute his sentence to life as part of a legal settlement tied to his poor health, and Hamm later died of natural causes.
For the immediate future, all capital punishment in Tennessee is on hold. Only one execution was scheduled after Pike this year, and Governor Lee has already postponed that proceeding. Legal experts across the board agree that Pike’s case will see significant delays while the independent investigation reviews the botched attempt and medical professionals evaluate her current health.
Slobogin predicts that the most likely outcome is that Governor Lee will ultimately commute Pike’s death sentence, especially if the independent investigation uncovers evidence that state officials failed to follow existing protocols or made avoidable missteps during the first execution attempt. “If the investigation in any way suggests that the protocol was not followed, or is unworkable, that would be the easiest political and legal outcome for the governor, given all the complications and negative public attention around this case,” Slobogin explained.