Sen. Marsha Blackburn has vowed to “bring back the electric chair” if she becomes Tennessee’s next governor – saying Christa Pike’s failed execution “should not be grounds to halt” the death penalty.
Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for the return to electrocution as her state’s outgoing governor, Bill Lee, paused all remaining executions after deranged killer Pike, 50, horrifically survived two doses of lethal injection last Wednesday.
“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.
“As your governor I will do just that.”
Blackburn said Monday that Pike’s unsuccessful execution “should not be grounds to halt carrying out the death penalty,” but a reason to reevaluate the best method.
“If it’s lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully,” she said, citing other states using more successful methods.
You look at Florida; they’ve had 19 executions this year. Not one of them has been botched.”
Pike could have chosen electrocution as she was put on death row in 1996 for the murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer.
Inmates who committed crimes before Jan. 1 1999 can choose electrocution over lethal injection by signing a waiver, according to state law. Electrocution can also be carried out if the doses of lethal injection are unavailable.
Blackburn’s position is a sharp contrast to that of her Democrat opponent Jerri Green, who called for a moratorium on all future state executions.
It’s unclear whether Pike, who is unconscious in hospital, will face execution again.
Her lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, has called for her death row sentence to be commuted.
“The least that could happen now is that we at least take death off the table and start looking for what the future could be for her,” he told CBS on Monday.
Pike lured Slemmer into an isolated area near the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp.
Slemmer was assaulted and tortured with a box cutter, and had a pentagram carved into her chest while she was still alive.
Pike, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death for the murder. Shipp, who was 17 when the killing took place, got a sentence of life plus 25 years with the possibility of parole.
She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder – and said she was a “mentally ill 18-year-old kid” at the time of the murder.
With Post wires
