There is already a lot of controversy surrounding the death penalty. Some see it as the ultimate act of retribution, while others question the idea of institutionalized slaughter. This discourse gets even more complicated when someone survives the execution. 

Convicted murderer Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection on September 30th. Pike was released from the hospital Saturday back to Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center a week after her botched execution. She is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the US.

Pike reportedly was “crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly” and stated that her arm “felt like it was going to burst open” as she was given two lethal doses of pentobarbital. Allegedly, one of the needles was bent at a 90-degree angle upon removal. Pentobarbital has been described as extremely painful causing a burning sensation upon contact. 

After her injections were administered, she appeared to still be breathing and was rushed to the hospital. Pike’s arms were reportedly swollen, burned, and blistered when she arrived, according to a motion filed by her attorneys. She had been on a ventilator until Tuesday when she regained consciousness. 

Little is known about her exact condition at this time. Attorneys have described her as “cognitively not quite back to normal,” reportedly struggling with concentration and memory. She can now walk with assistance, and her arms are starting to heal and regain movement. 

Before her execution, her attorneys raised concerns about her sentence, saying that the medication used could carry a large risk of pain and suffering. They requested death by hanging instead, citing concerns surrounding a platelet disorder and small veins that would make injection not only painful but ineffective. 

The Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robin Maher described the attempt as “the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era.” Support for capital punishment is at its lowest it has been in decades, according to a 2025 Gallup poll. The practice is mainly being championed by conservatives, notably in states like Tennessee.

For now, Tennessee has put a halt on all scheduled executions for the rest of the year. The Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has also announced his resignation. 

The governor’s office appointed former US Attorney Ed Staonton to conduct an independent investigation of the execution attempt “to determine whether the protocol was followed and consider whether additional recommendations are necessary to ensure the State’s protocol continues to be lawful and effective.”

Judges granted a motion that orders the Tennessee Department of Corrections to preserve all evidence related to the execution attempt. Attorneys have also requested to have her sentence commuted to life without parole. 

Pike has been the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row, being the first woman to go through an execution attempt in Tennessee since 1820. In 1995, she was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Collen Slemmer. At 18, Pike had tortured and killed Slemmer with a meat cleaver and box cutter in the woods of the University of Tennessee campus with the assistance of her boyfriend and friend. 

The mother of Slemmer, May Martinez, drove from Florida to Nashville to witness the execution and has expressed frustration that the execution was not carried out. Martinez says she is angry not only over the gruesome torture of her daughter but the toll of the lengthy litigation over Pike’s execution.

Pike has spent three decades in prison and largely in isolation. While in prison, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD, which her attorneys say contributed to her 1995 crime. Before her execution, Pike told the New York Times, “the biggest punishment was taking me away from people and human contact.”

A 2025 settlement allowed her to interact with other women in prison physically, but under Tennessee’s new execution protocol, she was returned to isolation a few days before her sentence. 

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the death penalty. Though I believe it can be necessary in some extreme cases, my opinion is that the worst kind of punishment is life in prison. 

Isolation can be a fate worse than death. It can take years for people to feel guilty for the crimes they have committed, but this guilt can eat a person up. Reflection and rehabilitation is important for all prisoners. 

Pike committed an awful crime, but no one deserves a painful death, not even Pike. The recent action in Tennessee should cause a nationwide reflection on the death penalty: who deserves it and what is the most humane way to carry it out? No matter how inhumane the crime might have been, every person deserves to be treated like a human being, even in death.