Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has so far rejected calls to commute Christa Pike’s death sentence, despite repeated appeals from her attorney. The failed execution has also raised constitutional questions that legal experts say have never previously been tested.
Pike, 50, is conscious and able to speak, according to her lawyers, in what they call a “medically unprecedented” recovery. She survived two doses of lethal injection a week ago, but state officials have not said whether another execution attempt will be scheduled.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told USA Today on Tuesday.
Maher said the U.S. Supreme Court has not addressed since 1947 whether attempting to execute a person a second time could violate the Constitution. He pointed to the case of Willie Francis, a Black teenager who survived an initial electrocution after being convicted by an all-white jury.
“These are questions that have never needed to be asked before, and no one knows the answers,” Maher said.
Francis survived his first execution in May 1946 after the electric chair, nicknamed “Gruesome Gertie,” failed to deliver sufficient current. He was executed successfully the following year.
Maher said he believes a second attempt to execute Pike would “likely be unconstitutional.”
“Of all the unknowns we have at the moment, the only thing I’m certain of is that she should not be subject to a second one,” he said.
“She has already endured a torturous experience in that execution chamber.”
Lee, who is nearing the end of his time as governor, has continued to oppose commuting Pike’s sentence. Pike has spent more than 30 years on death row for the killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Tennessee has suspended all executions scheduled for this year, but Lee has not ruled out putting Pike to death at a later date.
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The governor has said his “responsibility is to uphold the sentences that Tennessee juries have handed down.”
“The people of Tennessee have determined that the death penalty is the appropriate penalty for the most heinous crimes in the state.
“The people of Tennessee make that decision, and my job is to make sure that those sentences are carried out.”
Pike’s attorney, Stephen Ferrell, pushed back against the governor’s position, telling CNN on Sunday: “I don’t think that attempting another execution is going to bring justice.”
“The least that could happen now is that we at least take the death penalty off the table and start looking for what the future could be for her,” Ferrell told “CBS Mornings.”
Although Pike regained consciousness—something her lawyers described as happening “against all odds”—she sustained “severe damage” to her arms after two doses of pentobarbital were administered.
“Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” her lawyers said.
They also cautioned that it could be a “long time” before Pike is capable of participating in the legal proceedings surrounding her case.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has called for Tennessee to restore electrocution as an execution method following the botched lethal injection.
“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,” said Blackburn, who is expected to win November’s election to succeed Lee.
“As your governor I will do just that.”