Christa Pike’s Attorney Says Electric Chair Remains an Option After Failed Execution 

Christa Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey says the electric chair remains a legal option for the Tennessee death row inmate if her death sentence is not commuted following her failed lethal injection.

Pike survived an attempted execution on September 30, 2026, after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital but were unable to complete the procedure. 

She was taken to a hospital and remained in critical condition as of October 1, according to her attorneys.

Speaking to Fox News on October 1, Spivey described the experience as particularly traumatic for Pike, who has a documented history of sexual abuse.

We will never know what mental and physical pain she was going through.

Spivey said the procedure could have forced Pike to relive past trauma and argued that putting a person with such a history through the experience amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

But that was her biggest fear as the survivor of sexual abuse: that she would be pinned down, prodded, poked, and cut for a prolonged period of time, during which time she could be reliving her past trauma, and for a traumatized person to be put through this, no one should have to do that. That was a cruel and unusual punishment.

I will say the electric chair is an option on the books at this time if they are unable to get her death sentence commuted entirely,” Spivey added.

What did Christa Pike’s attorney say about failed execution?

Pike’s attorneys have been seeking to have her death sentence commuted to life in prison following the failed execution.

The execution attempt involved prolonged efforts to establish intravenous access before two doses of pentobarbital were administered.

Witnesses reported that Pike remained alive and showed signs of consciousness after the drugs were given. She was eventually transported to a hospital for emergency medical care.

The Tennessee Department of Correction, however, said the state followed every step of its established execution protocol and that the chemical used in the protocol had previously been effective.

Governor Bill Lee on failed execution

Following the failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the state’s remaining executions for 2026 and ordered an independent review of the procedure.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her attorneys are now asking Tennessee authorities to commute her sentence, while the failed execution has triggered further scrutiny of the state’s lethal injection procedures.