Christa Pike’s failed execution has reignited a debate over how Tennessee should carry out the death penalty, with the rising number of failed attempts at execution via lethal drugs. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused the state’s remaining scheduled executions, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Marsha Blackburn has called for the return of the electric chair.
Why Sen. Blackburn suggests the electric chair method to return
For context, when Christa Pike was originally sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, the electric chair was still in practice in Tennessee, and she was also planned to be executed with that method. After she survived not one but two lethal doses and has now regained consciousness, Sen. Blackburn says she would “bring back the electric chair” if elected governor.
Blackburn argued that Pike’s survival after Tennessee administered two doses of lethal-injection drugs should not stop the state from carrying out death sentences. Her comments came after Gov. Bill Lee ordered a review of what went wrong. Blackburn said:
“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. As your governor, I will do just that.”
The proposal comes as Pike, 50, remains hospitalized after surviving the September 30, 2026, execution attempt. Her attorneys said on October 6, 2026, that she was conscious and speaking, although she is in shackles and her prognosis remains unclear.
Blackburn said Pike’s failed execution “should not be grounds to halt carrying out the death penalty,” but rather a reason for Tennessee to reconsider its execution methods. Pointing to Florida’s execution record as an example, she said:
“If it’s lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this and do it successfully.”
Tennessee law already allows some death-row prisoners to choose electrocution instead of lethal injection. Inmates whose crimes were committed before January 1, 1999, can choose the electric chair by signing a waiver. Electrocution can also be used in certain circumstances if lethal-injection drugs are unavailable.
Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996, therefore could have been eligible to select electrocution as her execution method. But the question of whether she could face another execution remains unresolved. Her attorney, Stephen Ferrell, has urged Tennessee to commute her death sentence. He told CBS:
“The least that could happen now is that we at least take death off the table and start looking for what the future could be for her.”
Could Tennessee execute Christa Pike again?
Pike’s survival has created an unusual legal situation. Her death sentence has not automatically disappeared because the first execution attempt failed, but any future execution would raise some previously uncharted questions.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described the situation as “uncharted territory.” The U.S. Supreme Court last considered whether a prisoner who survived an execution could be executed again in 1947.
That case involved Willie Francis, a 17-year-old Louisiana prisoner whose electrocution failed when the electric chair malfunctioned. The Supreme Court ultimately allowed Louisiana to try again, and Francis was executed in the electric chair on May 9, 1947.
Pike’s attorneys had warned Tennessee months before her execution that establishing IV access could be difficult because of her unusually small veins. During the September 30, 2026, attempt, execution personnel administered two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike survived.
Her lawyers have alleged that IV lines may have failed or that some of the drug entered surrounding tissue rather than her bloodstream. Tennessee officials have said the state followed its execution protocol, but the precise reason Pike survived has not yet been publicly established.
As of now, Gov. Bill Lee has ordered a review of the failed execution and halted the state’s remaining scheduled executions for 2026. He has not publicly ruled out another execution attempt for Pike.
What are your thoughts on the idea of bringing back the electric chair to execute death row inmates?
Image courtesy: USA Today, Tennessee Dept. of Corrections, social media
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