Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike exposes systemic rot
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
After Tennessee botched the execution of Christa Pike, the state must commute her sentence because a government that cannot safely administer its own laws forfeits the right to try again.
Process breaks down when competence leaves the room
Procedure is the only thing standing between the state and raw vengeance. When the machinery fails, the state loses its moral authority to exact the ultimate penalty. On September 30, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution using two injections of the drug pentobarbital. According to reporting by the BBC and Al Jazeera, the lethal injection failed to cause death. The record defines a botched execution as a departure from protocol. It involves unanticipated problems or delays that cause unnecessary agony or reflect gross incompetence. Prison officials spent over an hour establishing an IV line using at least seven needles. SVT Nyheter and other outlets reported on the failed execution. The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment on why it went wrong. If execution routines permit a process where executioners use at least seven needles and still fail, the routine is merely a euphemism for incompetence. A rule that only works when the plumbing holds together was never a rule at all.
The strongest case for the state collapses under its own record
The strongest opposing case comes from advocates of capital punishment. They argue that the state has a sovereign right to execute a prisoner convicted of a heinous crime. They contend that procedural mishaps should not permanently bar the administration of justice. This argument points to the brutality of the original crime. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed Colleen Slemmer in 1995 after luring her to a job training camp for low-income young people. Slemmer's mother described the failed execution as a "mess." Following the botched procedure, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn argued that the botched process extended the pain for the family. She called for the return of the electric chair. This argument has emotional force, but it fundamentally mistakes retribution for procedure. The state does not possess a constitutional dispensation to bungle its own executions until death finally arrives by accident. The Nuremberg trials were international criminal trials held by France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They prosecuted leaders of defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of several countries across Europe and committing atrocities against their citizens in the Second World War. As noted in those trials, the rule of law requires adherence to strict legal and procedural standards even in the gravest matters. When execution protocols collapse into an hour of needle-sticks, the state has abandoned the law and adopted the very arbitrariness it claims to punish.
Preservation of evidence exposes the depth of the administrative failure
The aftermath of this failure has exposed the judiciary scrambling to pick up the pieces of a broken administrative apparatus. On Wednesday, Judge I'Ashea Myles ordered that "anything that was in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained." Her order covers IV lines, syringes, waste, packaging, inserts, and labels. Judge Myles also demanded documentation on Pike's psychological condition before, during, and after the failed execution. She advised the state to take "special care" not to misplace or delete pertinent information. In a statement issued Thursday, Pike's lawyers described her recovery as "remarkable." She had been transported to a hospital in critical condition and remained unconscious on a ventilator for nearly a week. Pike is currently eating, able to walk with assistance, and has regained some movement in her arms. Her legal team stated that she is dealing with "the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution." This trauma includes "the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die." Meanwhile, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a pause on all executions for the remainder of the year. He stated he wants answers about what went wrong. Pike's lawyers have requested that Governor Bill Lee downgrade her punishment to life in prison without parole.
To commute a sentence is to substitute a less severe punishment for the one originally imposed. A government that cannot safely administer its own chosen punishment forfeits the right to try again. Tennessee must commute Christa Pike's sentence to life without parole rather than subject its own legal system to another botched attempt.