Opinion: A botched execution in Tennessee should end the death penalty debate

Opinion column. A botched execution is not an accident of procedure. It is the predictable result of asking the state to kill with precision. Tennessee’s attempt to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday evening shows why.

Pike, 50, was convicted in 1996 of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Nothing here excuses that crime. Slemmer’s family deserved justice, and they received a conviction decades ago.

What went wrong

Court filings say prison staff used at least seven needles to find a vein. One came out bent at a 90-degree angle. Pike reportedly said her arm felt “like it’s about to burst open”. Both arms were left with swelling, burns and blistering from pentobarbital.

By Friday she was unconscious, intubated and critically ill in a Nashville-area hospital, her lawyers said. Her attorney Randy Spivey called the night “cruel” and “torturous”. Those are the words of an advocate. The injuries described in the filings speak for themselves.

The warning signs were not hidden. Pike’s lawyers say she told the state about a blood condition and a history of difficult IV placement.

Why a botched execution fails the rule-of-law test

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to vacate a Sixth Circuit stay and let the execution proceed. Governor Bill Lee has now halted all remaining 2026 executions. He has ordered a third-party review.

That review is welcome, but it arrives after the harm. A system that must be audited after it hurts someone has already failed its own standard.

As a freethought paper, we hold that no authority should be trusted to inflict irreversible punishment without a way to correct mistakes. Death offers none. Even when guilt is certain, the method is not.

The case for ending executions does not rest on sympathy for Pike. It rests on a principle. A civilised state should not run experiments in killing, and should not need a hospital ward to hide the results. The principle is worth defending, as in our earlier column on protecting human rights defenders.

Fact basis: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and US News reports, 1 to 2 October 2026. This is an opinion column.