Blackburn calls to reinstate electric chair after Tennessee death row inmate’s botched lethal injections
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 58/100
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is calling for Tennessee to reinstate the electric chair after a botched lethal injection left convicted murderer Christa Pike alive following two doses of the execution drug.
Pike, 50, was set to be executed on Wednesday, but after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital that evening, Pike remained alive and was hospitalized, according to officials.
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Blackburn, who is running for governor of Tennessee, described the botched execution as “tragic.”
“Christa Pike should have been executed long ago,” Blackburn wrote on X. “Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer.”
Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Pike, who was 18 at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in 1996 and sentenced to death. She has remained the only woman on death row in Tennessee.
Pike had spent decades appealing her conviction and sentence before she was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. The execution was halted after the second dose of pentobarbital failed to kill her.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) has ordered an independent review of the execution to determine what went wrong. Lee also said the state’s remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.
Blackburn agreed that the execution should be reviewed but said that Tennessee should return to electrocution as an execution method.
“While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly,” Blackburn wrote.
Blackburn has pledged to reinstate the electric chair if she is elected governor.
The call comes as Blackburn campaigns for governor to succeed Lee, who is term-limited. She will face Democratic nominee Jerri Green in November. Tennessee authorizes lethal injection as its primary method of execution , with electrocution available under certain circumstances.
Lethal injection is the most widely used execution method among states that use the death penalty, while electrocution is authorized in a smaller number of states.
The Supreme Court has not held any particular method of execution to be categorically unconstitutional, although courts have placed restrictions on specific methods or protocols in individual states.
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