THE ULTIMATE ULTIMATUM: WHY LAWMAKERS ARE DEMANDING A FIRING SQUAD FOR CHRISTA PIKE TODAY!
The failed execution of Christa Pike has suddenly turned into a much bigger fight over how Tennessee carries out the death penalty — and Rep. Tim Burchett is pushing lawmakers toward a dramatic change.
After Pike survived two rounds of lethal-injection drugs, Burchett, a Republican congressman from Tennessee, said the state should move away from lethal injection and consider methods including a firing squad, electrocution and hanging.
His message was blunt: Tennessee needs an execution method that officials can carry out reliably.
But behind that demand is an even bigger question: What happens to Christa Pike now — and could the botched execution create a new legal battle over her death sentence?
“LET’S GET TO SOMETHING THAT WORKS”
Burchett did not call for the death penalty to be abandoned. Instead, he argued that Tennessee's problem is the method being used.
Speaking after Pike's failed execution, Burchett said the state should “get away” from lethal injection and consider alternatives. He pointed specifically to the firing squad, electric chair and hanging, saying those methods leave less room for mistakes.
In another interview, Burchett described firing squad and hanging as methods he believes are highly reliable and said: “Let’s get to something that works and let’s do it.”
That puts Burchett in a very different position from Tennessee lawmakers who are now calling for an end to capital punishment.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from Knoxville, said the failed execution reinforced her view that Tennessee should impose a moratorium and ultimately eliminate the death penalty. Burchett, by contrast, said he continues to support capital punishment in certain cases and expects lawmakers to examine alternative execution methods.
The divide is no longer simply about whether Tennessee should execute people.
It is now about how the state should do it if the death penalty remains in place.
CHRISTA PIKE SURVIVED TWO LETHAL INJECTIONS
The controversy erupted after Tennessee attempted to execute Pike on Sept. 30.
Pike, now 50, was convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps participant. She was sentenced to death after prosecutors argued that Pike tortured and killed Slemmer when Pike was 18.
The execution was supposed to make Pike the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.
Instead, the procedure failed.
Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, the lethal-injection drug used under Tennessee's protocol. According to witnesses and court filings, she continued breathing and making sounds long after the first dose was administered. The second dose also failed to result in her death. She was ultimately transported to a Nashville hospital.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed the state's established execution protocol and that the drug had previously been effective.
But the failure immediately raised questions about what went wrong.
And those questions became even more serious as Pike's medical condition deteriorated.
PIKE REMAINS UNCONSCIOUS
The latest development is especially significant.
According to Pike's attorney, she has remained unconscious and on a ventilator since the failed execution. Her lawyers say they do not yet know whether she will recover or what neurological consequences she may face.
That means the case has moved far beyond a debate over execution procedures.
Pike's legal team has asked for records from the execution to be preserved and has sought to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The precise legal consequences of the failed execution remain uncertain.
But one thing is clear: Tennessee cannot simply treat the Sept. 30 attempt as if nothing happened.
TENNESSEE HAS NOW HALTED EXECUTIONS
Gov. Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive, third-party review after the failed execution.
The state has also paused its remaining executions for the rest of 2026 while officials examine what happened.
Lee called the incident deeply disturbing and said Tennessee residents expect executions to be carried out in a manner that is lawful, constitutional and effective.
The fallout has already reached the state's prison leadership.
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced that he would step down this month as the independent review begins. Strada maintained that the department had followed the established protocol but said leaving was in the state's best interest.
So Burchett's call for an alternative method is emerging in the middle of an official investigation — not after authorities have already determined exactly what caused the failure.
That distinction matters.
BURCHETT IS NOT THE ONLY TENNESSEE REPUBLICAN CALLING FOR CHANGE
The push to abandon lethal injection is not limited to Burchett.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn has also called for bringing back the electric chair following Pike's failed execution.
CNN reported that Blackburn called for a thorough review but said Tennessee should return to electrocution as a way to carry out death sentences. Burchett responded that he already had legislation filed in the House.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton has also said the firing squad could be among the alternatives lawmakers consider.
“We're going to look at all alternatives,” Sexton said, indicating that lawmakers intend to examine how other states handle executions.
That makes the Pike case potentially important well beyond one prisoner.
The failed execution could become the catalyst for a major rewrite of Tennessee's execution laws.
BUT COULD A NEW METHOD ACTUALLY BE USED ON PIKE?
This is where the story becomes much more complicated.
Pike's death sentence did not automatically disappear because the execution failed.
At the same time, the state cannot simply decide overnight to use any method it wants.
Execution procedures are governed by state law, court orders, constitutional requirements and litigation over the method of execution.
Pike's lawyers had already challenged Tennessee's lethal-injection protocol before the execution. Court records show that her legal team argued that Tennessee's procedures raised constitutional and due-process issues.
And now the circumstances have changed dramatically.
Pike survived the execution attempt. She suffered serious medical consequences. Her attorneys are seeking records and asking for a sentence commutation.
Any attempt to schedule another execution would therefore likely generate another round of litigation.
That does not mean Pike has automatically escaped the death penalty.
It does mean the path forward is legally complicated.
THE BIGGER QUESTION: DEATH PENALTY OR EXECUTION METHOD?
This is the dividing line in Tennessee's debate.
For Burchett, the failed execution demonstrates that the state needs a different mechanism.
For opponents of capital punishment, the same failure demonstrates why the punishment itself should be reconsidered.
Johnson argued that life imprisonment without parole could protect the public without another execution attempt. Burchett rejected that approach and said certain crimes warrant capital punishment.
Meanwhile, Tennessee's review must determine what actually happened inside the execution chamber.
That investigation is especially important because Pike's case followed another failed execution attempt earlier this year.
In May, Tennessee halted the execution of Tony Arthur Carruthers after officials were unable to establish suitable intravenous access.
Two failed execution attempts in the same year have therefore transformed what might otherwise have been an isolated procedural problem into a broader question about Tennessee's entire capital-punishment system.
THE FATE OF CHRISTA PIKE IS STILL UNRESOLVED
For now, the most dramatic part of the story is also the least settled.
Pike remains alive.
She remains under medical care.
Her death sentence has not simply vanished.
And Tennessee has not announced a new execution date.
Instead, the state is conducting an independent review while lawmakers consider whether the execution method itself needs to change.
Burchett wants lawmakers to move toward methods he believes would be more dependable, including the firing squad.
But whether Tennessee ultimately adopts such a method — and whether any new method could legally be applied to Pike — remains to be determined.
That leaves Tennessee facing a question it expected to have already answered on Sept. 30:
After two lethal injections failed, what happens next?
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For Pike, the answer could depend not only on her medical condition, but also on the courts, the governor, the legislature and the findings of Tennessee's review.
And for the state, the Pike case may become the moment when Tennessee is forced to decide whether it wants to repair its existing execution system — or fundamentally change the way it carries out the death penalty.
