Legal fate remains unclear for Christa Pike over failed execution.
Can the state try again?
The fate of a Tennessee woman who survived two botched attempts to execute her last month hangs in the balance as the courts and the state’s governor determine whether an attempt should be made to execute her again or allow her to live out the remainder of her life in prison.
Convicted murderer Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of lethal injection on Sept. 30, thwarting Tennessee’s first efforts to put a woman to death in two centuries. Pike’s lawyers said in a statement Tuesday that she has regained consciousness and had spoken while undergoing hospital treatment after being unconscious and on a ventilator for seven days.
The case has raised questions over whether trying to kill Pike again would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
Northeastern University School of Law Professor Emeritus Michael Meltsner, one of the founders of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s anti-capital punishment campaign, explained some of the issues surrounding the case.
Has a state ever executed a person again after botching a first attempt?
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that advocates against the death penalty, there have been at least eight botched execution attempts nationwide since 2019. All involved unanticipated problems or delays. But no death row convict has survived two full courses of injections, the group said.
Meltsner said the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed a subsequent execution could take place after a prior attempt had failed.
The most infamous case was the failed execution attempt of 17-year-old Willie Francis, who in 1947 survived electrocution in Louisiana, when the electric chair didn’t deliver enough current.
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In that case, Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, the court upheld the second execution order and said that, where the original sentence is not complete “due to an accident,” a later attempt to carry it out is not forbidden by the Constitution.
Why has the court allowed states to execute condemned people after botched attempts?
The Courts have followed the reasoning of the 1947 Francis case to apply in the modern cases, Meltsner said. Other instances of failed executions have led to postponements or delays in carrying out the sentences. Meltsner said, inmates are arguably assaulted in cases where efforts to administer lethal injections lead to burst veins, or the injection chemicals failed to work.
Pike’s lawyers have said she is critically ill. Is there any reason that the state might not proceed with an execution?
Meltsner said that the courts could block the execution if Pike suffered brain damage during the botched executions. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that people who are severely cognitively or mentally impaired cannot be executed. That could apply to Pike, he said.
The eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects people against cruel and unusual punishment. Could such protection apply in this case?
Meltsner said there is still a powerful argument that could and should save Pike, that is, if her lawyers can demonstrate that the state of Tennessee has proven to be grossly negligent or incompetent in its attempts to carry out executions.
“Her gruesome treatment was no accident,” Meltsner said. “Tennessee has a clear record of gross negligence in attempting to execute.”
In May, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said that it had trouble establishing a backup IV line during the execution of Tony von Carruthers, a death-row inmate who was sentenced in 1996 in the murder of Sharon Ann Glass. Gov. Bill Lee subsequently granted him a one-year reprieve.
Meltsner said that 8% of all efforts to execute people by lethal injection have resulted in inexcusable pain. He added that the Eighth Amendment, which protects people against cruel and unusual punishment, should stop what he described as “this sort of wanton disregard.”
What might happen next?
Governor Bill Lee has both delayed all executions for the rest of 2026 and called for a third-party investigation into Pike’s case. But the leading contender to be the next governor, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, has already spoken in favor of execution, Meltsner said.
“If the state tries to execute her again it will be up to the courts to intervene to stop it or let it happen,” he said.
