Christa Pike’s failed execution could have a surprising legal consequence that few saw coming.
Pike is reportedly unconscious and on a ventilator after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to put her to death.
According to her attorney, Stephen Ferrell, she was still considered “critically ill” on Sunday, and doctors do not yet know what her prognosis will be.
She has been in the hospital since last Wednesday night, when the state administered what were supposed to be two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
Instead, Pike survived. Court documents filed by her attorneys on Friday said “both of her arms were swollen, burned, and blistered” when she was taken to the hospital.
“Pentobarbital is caustic and highly alkaline and burns upon contact, including skin, tissue, and veins,” the filing states.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks execution attempts and their outcomes, Pike is believed to be “the first person to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs.”
”Never seen anything quite like this”
Pike’s condition could now raise a much bigger question: could the state legally execute her again?
If Pike does not recover, or suffers permanent brain damage, Vanderbilt Law School professor Christopher Slobogin said there could be a constitutional barrier preventing another execution.
“We’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Slobogin told WSMV4.
“We’ve certainly had botched executions before, and the state has then subsequently executed the person who survived the botched attempt. But her case is unique in that they tried twice.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits states from executing someone who is incompetent to be executed.
That means Pike would have to understand that she is going to die — and why she is being killed.
If a brain injury leaves her unable to understand those things, Slobogin said another execution would be off the table.
“If she’s got a brain injury, if she’s got cognitive problems, then she will not be competent to be executed and they simply cannot kill her,” Slobogin said.
What if Pike recovers?
If Pike makes a full recovery and Tennessee still wants to carry out her death sentence, the legal picture becomes more complicated.
Her death sentence remains in effect, and the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that a state can attempt to execute a death-row inmate again after a failed execution.
But Slobogin believes Pike’s attorneys could have a strong Eighth Amendment argument against using lethal injection again.
“Given what we know now, how she responds to lethal injection, and given what happened to her, Christa Pike’s lawyers have a pretty good argument that it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment to execute her using that method,” Slobogin said.
Tennessee also has the electric chair available as another execution method.
Even then, however, Slobogin said the state could face another legal battle because Pike has already endured what was supposed to be a lethal injection attempt — twice — resulting in serious medical injuries.
“There might be the possibility the state could execute her constitutionally,” Slobogin said. “But I think her lawyers would also have an argument that it would be a violation to the Eighth Amendment to execute her considering what’s happened.”
Following the botched execution of Christa Pike, Gov. Bill Lee has halted executions across Tennessee for the rest of the year — but the move affects just one other scheduled execution, that of convicted double murderer Gary Wayne Sutton on Dec. 3.
The leading candidate in the Nov. 3 election to replace Gov. Bill Lee is U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. She has long supported the death penalty. Following Pike’s failed execution, the Republican candidate took to X to share her response.
“Bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly,” she wrote. “As your governor, I will do just that.”
The electric chair was last used in Tennessee in 2020, when the state executed Nicholas Sutton in Nashville. Sutton was one of five Tennessee inmates who chose electrocution over lethal injection between 2018 and 2020.
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