Whether Tennessee tries to execute Christa Pike again is an open question. Here’s why

J. Miles Cary/Knoxville News-Sentinel/USA Today Network/Reuters

Only a week after Christa Pike survived a failed execution, her attorneys appeared in a Nashville courthouse to take the first steps in what will likely be a protracted legal battle to prevent a second attempt to put her to death.

Though Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee postponed executions while officials conduct an independent review of her botched lethal injection, Pike’s attorneys are already preparing for state officials to move forward.

“The state has made no promises that Ms. Pike will not be subject to a future execution,” Pike’s attorney Luke Ihnen said in court last Wednesday, as her team argued for the preservation of evidence from the failed execution, which saw Pike survive two ostensibly fatal doses of pentobarbital.

Whether Tennessee will again attempt to execute Pike – who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer – remains an open question that could be answered by a judicial ruling or the governor’s intervention.

The hearing last week was only the beginning of what could be a lengthy struggle between the state and Pike’s attorneys. But the novel circumstances of Pike’s case could help her attorneys make strong legal arguments to stave off a second attempt, experts told CNN – such as claiming it would violate her constitutional protections against double jeopardy and cruel and unusual punishment.

Dipti Vaidya/USA Today Network/Imagn Images/Reuters

Tennessee’s outgoing prison chief had a history of execution missteps before Christa Pike, officials say

“Christa Pike is the only one in which they actually injected lethal injection chemicals,” said Robert Dunham, the director of the Death Penalty Policy Project and adjunct professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law. “In all the other failed executions, the executions were stopped after prison personnel were unable to set lethal injection lines.”

Pike’s was not even Tennessee’s only failed execution in recent memory: Earlier this year, the state halted the execution of Tony Carruthers after struggling to establish IV access.

In Pike’s case, officials similarly spent more than an hour trying to establish IV access, using at least seven needles.

But unlike Carruthers, Pike was injected with the drugs.

Pike was transported to a hospital, where her attorneys said she remained unconscious for days . Though Pike’s lawyers announced Saturday she had been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison, her legal team previously cautioned the scope of her injuries remains unclear.

“It’s an embarrassment for the state of Tennessee that after trying to kill her, they had to go to the hospital and give her lifesaving care,” said Corinna Barrett Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the book “Secrets of the Killing State: the Untold Story of Lethal Injection.”

“This whole thing is a real mess for Tennessee.”

If officials were to pursue another execution attempt, the Tennessee attorney general would have to ask the state’s supreme court to set an execution date.

For the execution to proceed, experts noted Pike would first have to be found competent to be put to death, which requires a person to be aware of and understand the reason for the punishment.

Pike’s attorneys have provided some details about her medical status , but the full extent of her injuries and the intensity of her recovery remain largely uncertain.

“Christa is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die,” her attorneys wrote in a statement Thursday. At that time, Pike was still struggling with concentration and memory, and her lawyers said it could take months to determine if she has lasting cognitive injuries.

Any potential impairments could affect her competency, Dunham said.

“We don’t know to what degree there may be brain damage,” he told CNN in an interview prior to Pike’s discharge from the hospital. “We don’t know to what degree this is going to affect her mental health, and whether her mental health will deteriorate significantly if there’s another attempt to execute her.”

If Pike is found to be competent, experts said her attorneys could argue a second execution attempt would violate her constitutional protections against double jeopardy, which prevent individuals from being prosecuted or punished for the same crime twice.

Dunham pointed to the landmark case of Willie Francis, a 16-year-old who survived an execution in 1946 after Louisiana’s electric chair malfunctioned. Francis argued a second execution would amount to double jeopardy and cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court, however, rejected his arguments and allowed him to be put to death, writing, “Accidents happen for which no man is to blame.”

But the issues in Pike’s case were not caused by accidents and were foreseeable, experts said: Her lawyers previously raised concerns in court filings that lethal injection would cause unnecessary and additional suffering due to her various medical conditions. After the failed execution, the Tennessee Department of Corrections maintained it acted according to its protocol.

“There doesn’t appear to be any ‘malfunctioning’ here,” Dunham said. “Whatever went wrong here, with Tennessee saying that they followed the protocol, was a product of the execution process not working. That’s not an accident.”

Pike’s case also raises the question about when exactly double jeopardy protections come into play, experts said, pointing to the 2009 botched execution of Romell Broom , which failed after Ohio officials were unable to place a viable IV line in his body.

Broom argued a second execution attempt would violate his double jeopardy protections. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected his argument, noting the drugs never entered the IV line and allowing his second execution to proceed.

“The establishment of viable IV lines is a necessary preliminary step, but it does not, by itself, place the prisoner at risk of death,” Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote in the majority opinion, which is not binding on Tennessee courts. “As the statute makes clear, the execution commences when the lethal drug enters the IV line.”

In Pike’s case, however, the drugs were injected into her body.

“When the drugs begin to flow, the punishment has started, and I would say jeopardy attaches when the punishment starts – so you can’t do it again,” said Austin Sarat, an Amherst College professor and author of several books on the death penalty and lethal injection. “Now, others might say, ‘No, double jeopardy has to do when the punishment has been completed.’”

Legal experts said Pike’s legal team could also make a compelling argument that another execution attempt would violate her Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Her attorneys would need to show the execution would “superadd” pain, terror or disgrace.

“This certainly looks like something where there has been superadded pain. This is pain that is not incidental to a lethal injection gone right,” Dunham said. “In terms of superadded terror, the mental health implications of having gone through this and having to face it again would, to a layperson, clearly suggest a heightened level of anxiety and terror in a second execution attempt.”

The Tennessee governor has the authority to halt state executions. But whether the current or future governor would intervene in Pike’s case is unknown.

After the failed execution, Lee, a Republican, ordered a review and postponed the execution of another death row inmate scheduled for December – the last execution slated to take place during his final term. It’s unclear if the inquiry will be complete before his tenure ends in January.

“If the review is not complete by then, then Governor Lee will have to act according to his conscience,” Dunham said. “Ultimately, he’ll have to act according to his conscience anyway if he chooses to commute, but he may have to act before he knows exactly what went wrong.”

Pike’s attorney has called for the governor to commute her sentence before he leaves office, saying she had endured punishment “greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.” However, Lee has not granted clemency to any death row inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

If Lee doesn’t take action before leaving office, the issue would be inherited by his successor. The top two candidates in the race have both spoken out about Pike’s case and have drastically different views: Democrat Jerri Green has said she would order a moratorium on executions, while her opponent, Republican US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, said Pike’s death sentence should be carried out, perhaps using another method.

“The answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly,” the senator wrote on X .

In recent years, several states have turned to alternative methods after struggling with lethal injections and fielding concerns about how the drugs are obtained and administered.

Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

“Because lethal injections have become so problematic, states have resurrected old methods: the firing squad, the electric chair – and places like Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, have added nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative,” Sarat said.

Some prisoners who survived initial execution attempts by lethal injection were later put to death by a different method, including Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith, who was the first person to be executed with nitrogen gas after surviving an initial attempt via lethal injection.

Tennessee currently offers the electric chair as an alternative for certain offenders, who can choose electrocution if they committed their crimes before 1999, or if the state is unable to use lethal injection. If Blackburn were elected, it’s unclear if she would push to instate new methods, though Tennessee lawmakers have publicly supported the idea in recent days, according to The Associated Press .

Some experts pointed to the outcry surrounding Pike’s failed execution and surmised there could be public backlash if Tennessee’s new administration pursued a second one.

“(Pike’s case) raises the type of moral and political considerations that generally make governors think twice,” Dunham said.

The prospect of a second execution would be a “public relations nightmare” for Tennessee, Lain said.

“The public is already incensed over what happened to her and additional cruelty could swing the public against the death penalty, period,” she told CNN. “You could be shooting yourself in the foot.”

Colleen Slemmer, murdered by Christa Pike, remembered as a ‘computer geek’ with a nurturing heart

When Pike killed Slemmer in 1995, support for the death penalty was near its peak in the United States, with roughly three-quarters of Americans in favor of capital punishment, according to Gallup polling at the time . But support for the death penalty has largely declined in recent decades, with about half the country indicating support for the death penalty in the most recent data from 2025.

While some people are opposed to the death penalty for moral reasons, Dunham said another sect has reservations stemming from a skepticism that the government can appropriately carry out executions.

“I think that the previous botched and failed executions contribute to that number,” he told CNN. “In a high-profile case like Christa Pike, the fact that Tennessee, on a procedure that was entirely within their control, so badly botched it – this is a failure that will make it into the American consciousness.”

Others, however, have expressed support for Pike’s second execution, with some citing in part the state’s rising bill from the continuation of the case.

“We have paid for Christa Pike, and now we’re paying for attorneys, and now we’re paying for hospital bills, and now they’re talking about lawsuits,” Tennessee resident Michelle Nowell told CNN after the hearing Wednesday. “And the worst part is that Colleen has been forgotten.”

The state may also consider the perspective of the victim’s family: Slemmer’s mother, who traveled from Florida to witness Pike’s execution in Nashville, told CNN affiliate WTLV she feels the state failed her family.

“All I wanted was justice,” May Martinez said.

J. Miles Cary/诺克斯维尔新闻哨兵报/今日美国网络/路透社

克丽斯塔·派克在一次失败的死刑执行中幸存下来仅仅一周后，她的律师就出现在纳什维尔法院，迈出了这场可能旷日持久的法律斗争的第一步，以阻止第二次对她执行死刑的尝试。

尽管田纳西州州长比尔·李推迟了对派克死刑执行的执行，以便官员们对她执行死刑失败的事件进行独立审查，但派克的律师们已经在为州政府官员继续推进执行死刑做准备。

“州政府没有承诺派克女士将来不会再被执行死刑，”派克的律师卢克·伊恩上周三在法庭上说。当时，她的团队正在为保存执行死刑失败的证据而辩护，在那次失败的死刑中，派克在注射了两剂本应致命的戊巴比妥钠后幸存了下来。

田纳西州是否会再次尝试处决派克（她因 1995 年谋杀其 19 岁的同学科琳·斯莱默而被判处死刑）仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，这或许可以通过司法裁决或州长的干预来解答。

上周的听证会仅仅是州政府与派克律师之间一场旷日持久斗争的开始。但专家告诉CNN，派克案件的特殊情况可能有助于她的律师提出强有力的法律论点，以阻止第二次审判——例如，声称第二次审判将侵犯她受宪法保护的免受双重危险和残酷不寻常惩罚的权利。

Dipti Vaidya/今日美国网络/Imagn Images/路透社

官员们表示，田纳西州即将卸任的监狱长在克里斯塔·派克之前就有过执行死刑失误的记录。

“克丽斯塔·派克是唯一一个真正注射了致命药物的案例，”死刑政策项目主任、坦普尔大学比斯利法学院兼职教授罗伯特·邓纳姆说。“在其他所有失败的死刑执行中，都是因为监狱工作人员无法设置注射管线而中止的。”

派克的死刑执行甚至不是田纳西州近年来唯一一次失败的死刑：今年早些时候，该州在难以建立静脉注射通道后，中止了对托尼·卡拉瑟斯的死刑执行。

在派克的案例中，官员们也同样花费了一个多小时试图建立静脉通路，至少使用了七根针头。

但与卡拉瑟斯不同的是，派克是被注射了毒品。

派克被送往医院，她的律师称她昏迷了数日。尽管派克的律师周六宣布她已出院并返回监狱，但她的法律团队此前曾表示，她的伤势程度仍不明朗。

“田纳西州的耻辱在于，他们试图杀死她，结果却不得不把她送到医院，给她提供救命的治疗，”里士满大学法学院教授、著有《杀戮之州的秘密：注射死刑不为人知的故事》一书的科琳娜·巴雷特·莱恩说道。

“这件事对田纳西州来说真是一团糟。”

如果官员们要再次尝试执行死刑，田纳西州总检察长必须请求该州最高法院确定执行日期。

专家指出，要执行死刑，首先必须认定派克有能力被处死，这要求一个人能够意识到并理解惩罚的原因。

派克的律师提供了一些关于她医疗状况的细节，但她的伤势程度和康复的强度仍然很大程度上不确定。

“克丽斯塔正在承受着死刑执行失败后幸存下来的巨大心理创伤，包括恐惧、痛苦和即将死亡的恐惧与不安，”她的律师周四在一份声明中写道。当时，派克的注意力和记忆力仍然很差，她的律师表示，可能需要数月时间才能确定她是否遭受了永久性的认知损伤。

邓纳姆说，任何潜在的缺陷都可能影响她的能力。

“我们不知道她脑损伤的程度如何，”他在派克出院前接受CNN采访时说。“我们不知道这会对她的精神健康造成多大影响，也不知道如果再次尝试处决她，她的精神健康是否会显著恶化。”

专家表示，如果派克被认定为有行为能力，她的律师可能会辩称，第二次执行死刑将违反她受宪法保护的免受双重危险的条款，该条款禁止对同一罪行进行两次起诉或惩罚。

邓纳姆提到了威利·弗朗西斯的里程碑式案例。1946年，16岁的弗朗西斯在路易斯安那州的电椅发生故障后侥幸活了下来。弗朗西斯辩称，第二次执行死刑将构成双重危险和残酷不寻常的惩罚。然而，最高法院驳回了他的论点，允许对他执行死刑，并写道：“意外事故的发生并非任何人的过错。”

但专家表示，派克案中的问题并非意外造成，而是可以预见的：她的律师此前在法庭文件中提出，由于她患有多种疾病，注射死刑会给她带来不必要的额外痛苦。行刑失败后，田纳西州惩教部门坚称其行为符合既定程序。

邓纳姆说：“这里似乎没有任何‘故障’。田纳西州方面声称他们遵循了流程，但无论出了什么问题，都是执行过程出了问题。这并非意外。”

专家表示，派克的案件也引发了双重危险保护究竟何时生效的问题，并指出 2009 年罗梅尔·布鲁姆的死刑执行失败，原因是俄亥俄州官员无法在他的体内放置有效的静脉输液管。

布鲁姆辩称，第二次执行死刑将违反他享有的“一罪不二审”保护。俄亥俄州最高法院驳回了他的论点，指出药物从未进入静脉输液管，因此允许第二次死刑执行。

“建立有效的静脉输液管是必要的初步步骤，但这本身并不会使囚犯面临死亡风险，”朱迪思·安·兰辛格法官在多数意见书中写道，该意见书对田纳西州法院不具有约束力。“正如法条明确规定的那样，死刑执行始于致命药物进入静脉输液管的那一刻。”

然而，在派克的案例中，毒品是被注射到她体内的。

“当药物开始注射时，惩罚就开始了，我认为双重危险原则从惩罚开始之时就存在——所以你不能再犯一次，”阿默斯特学院教授、著有多部关于死刑和注射死刑书籍的奥斯汀·萨拉特说道。“当然，也有人会说，‘不，双重危险原则应该在惩罚结束后才适用。’”

法律专家表示，派克的律师团队还可以提出令人信服的论点，即再次执行死刑将侵犯她受美国宪法第八修正案保护的免受残酷和非常规惩罚的权利。她的律师需要证明，执行死刑会“加剧”她的痛苦、恐惧或耻辱。

“这看起来显然是遭受了额外的痛苦。这种痛苦并非注射死刑成功后必然伴随的，”邓纳姆说。“就额外的恐惧而言，经历过这种痛苦之后，还要再次面对这种痛苦，对普通人来说，这无疑会加剧他们的焦虑和恐惧。”

田纳西州州长有权中止该州的死刑执行。但现任或未来的州长是否会干预派克的案件，目前尚不得而知。

在死刑执行失败后，身为共和党人的李下令进行复核，并推迟了原定于12月执行的另一名死刑犯的死刑——这也是他最后一个任期内计划执行的最后一例死刑。目前尚不清楚这项调查能否在他明年1月任期结束前完成。

“如果届时审查尚未完成，那么李州长将不得不凭良心行事，”邓纳姆说。“最终，如果他选择减免，无论如何他都必须凭良心行事，但他可能不得不在确切了解哪里出了问题之前就采取行动。”

派克的律师呼吁州长在卸任前减免她的死刑，称她所受的惩罚“比美国死刑史上任何人都更重”。然而，据死刑信息中心称，李州长从未赦免过任何死刑犯。

如果李在卸任前不采取行动，这个问题将由他的继任者接手。目前领先的两名候选人都就派克案发表了看法，但观点截然不同：民主党候选人杰里·格林表示，她将下令暂停执行死刑；而她的对手，共和党参议员玛莎·布莱克本则认为，派克的死刑判决应该执行，或许可以采用其他方式。

“答案很简单：恢复电椅，迅速为这些受害者伸张正义，”这位参议员在 X 上写道。

近年来，一些州在执行注射死刑时遇到了困难，并收到了关于药物获取和使用方式的担忧，因此转向了其他替代方法。

为什么行刑队可能卷土重来？

萨拉特说：“由于注射死刑变得如此棘手，各州又恢复了旧方法：枪决、电椅——而像阿拉巴马州、俄克拉荷马州、密西西比州、路易斯安那州等地则增加了氮气缺氧作为替代方案。”

有些囚犯在最初通过注射死刑的尝试中幸存下来，后来却被以其他方式处死，其中包括阿拉巴马州的囚犯肯尼斯·史密斯，他是第一个在最初通过注射死刑的尝试中幸存下来后，被氮气处决的人。

田纳西州目前为某些罪犯提供电椅死刑作为替代刑罚。如果罪犯在1999年之前犯罪，或者该州无法执行注射死刑，他们可以选择电刑。据美联社报道，如果布莱克本当选，她是否会推动采用新的死刑方式尚不明确，尽管田纳西州议员近日公开支持这一想法。

一些专家指出，派克死刑执行失败引发了强烈抗议，并推测如果田纳西州新政府再次执行死刑，可能会引起公众的强烈反对。

“（派克的案例）引发了道德和政治方面的考量，这通常会让州长们三思而后行，”邓纳姆说。

莱恩表示，第二次执行死刑的前景对田纳西州来说将是一场“公关噩梦”。

“公众已经对她的遭遇感到愤怒，如果再加残忍的行径，可能会让公众彻底反对死刑，”她告诉CNN。“你这是搬起石头砸自己的脚。”

科琳·斯莱默被克丽斯塔·派克谋杀，人们缅怀她是一位拥有善良心灵的“电脑极客”。

1995年派克枪杀斯莱默时，美国民众对死刑的支持率接近顶峰，根据当时盖洛普民意调查显示，约有四分之三的美国人支持死刑。但近几十年来，对死刑的支持率大幅下降，根据2025年的最新数据，约有一半的美国人表示支持死刑。

虽然有些人出于道德原因反对死刑，但邓纳姆表示，另一个群体则对死刑持保留态度，怀疑政府能否妥善执行死刑。

“我认为之前那些失败的死刑执行导致了这个数字的上升，”他告诉CNN。“在像克丽斯塔·派克这样的备受瞩目的案件中，田纳西州在完全由他们掌控的程序上却犯下了如此严重的错误——这起失败事件将会深深地烙印在美国民众的记忆中。”

然而，也有人表示支持对派克执行第二次死刑，部分原因是该州因案件继续审理而产生的费用不断增加。

“我们已经为克丽斯塔·派克付出了代价，现在又要支付律师费，还要支付医院账单，现在他们又要提起诉讼，”田纳西州居民米歇尔·诺威尔在周三的听证会后告诉CNN。“最糟糕的是，科琳已经被遗忘了。”

州政府也可以考虑受害者家属的意见：斯莱默的母亲从佛罗里达州赶到纳什维尔，亲眼目睹了派克的死刑执行。她告诉 CNN 附属电视台 WTLV，她觉得州政府辜负了她的家人。

“我想要的只是公正，”梅·马丁内斯说。