Regular readers know that there has been a lot of drama surrounding the execution of Christa Pike for her part in the torture-murder of Colleen Slemmer in the last 24 hours or so. Yesterday, her execution was stayed by the courts. Then the Supreme Court lifted the stay and they attempted to execute her, twice, and somehow she survived, as this author wrote last night.
We will note that in the post we wrote last night, we were not sure if she was receiving medical care. Now we have verification that she is:
BREAKING: Tennessee governor puts a halt on executions after inmate Christa Gail Pike survives a lethal injection attempt. https://t.co/gQgLmqTOf2
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 1, 2026
From the article:
Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they hadn’t been told about her condition.
In any case, the governor of Tennessee has halted all executions for the year, as they try to figure out what went wrong:
BREAKING: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is halting the state’s remaining execution for 2026 and ordering a third-party review after officials fail to execute death row inmate Christa Pike.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 1, 2026
Pike received two syringes of lethal injection Wednesday night but remained alive and could be… pic.twitter.com/DOthB3KLEX
The relevant cut off text:
Pike received two syringes of lethal injection Wednesday night but remained alive and could be heard snoring, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. Her legal team filed an emergency motion to stop the execution as the situation unfolded.
Pike was later transported to an off-site medical facility.
Lee says the state has a responsibility to ensure executions are carried out legally, constitutionally, and effectively.
That background brings us to the video at the heart of this post. Former DOJ attorney John Yoo was on Fox News arguing that Pike could face the firing squad instead:
🚨 JUST IN: Former Clarence Thomas clerk John Yoo reveals TN death row killer Christa Pike might face the FIRING SQUAD after TWICE-botched lethal injections.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) October 1, 2026
Tennessee must fix its methods. She was rightfully sentenced to CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Make it swift, execution is long… pic.twitter.com/C0oCRBy7rI
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The cut off word is 'overdue,' meaning that he felt the execution is 'long overdue.'
While Mr. Fournier notes that Yoo was once Justice Clarence ‘The Hammer’ Thomas’ clerk, he is probably most famous for being the author of the so-called ‘Torture Memo’ where he talks about what is, and isn’t torture. You can read the memo at the link provided here:
Sorry for spellcheck - its John Yoo:https://t.co/1G0xOOvdrP
— Bill Wolfe (@Newdeal57Wolfe) December 13, 2025
Of course, the claim that it is a torture memo ignores that Yoo was providing a reasoned — and we think basically correct — interpretation of what counts as torture under American law. We won’t go off on a tangent, but we will simply say that the Left calls it a ‘torture memo’ because they refuse to engage with the fact that American law is hopelessly vague on the definition of ‘torture.’ Indeed, we think the Left has no coherent definition of the term but instead relies on the old saw of ‘we know it when we see it’ — which is not how due process actually works, especially when we are talking about criminal statutes.
And we will note that Yoo is more or less right to say that execution is allowed by the Constitution. The due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments say that a person cannot be deprived of their life, liberty or property (by the government) without due process of law, implying that if he or she has due process, he or she can be deprived of all three.
In any case, that made us curious enough to actually look up what the law in Tennessee says about execution methods, and it’s a humdinger. We are talking about Tenn. Code § 40-23-114, and it starts off straightforwardly enough:
(a) For any person who commits an offense for which the person is sentenced to the punishment of death, the method for carrying out this sentence shall be by lethal injection.
Okay, so that is that. It is lethal injection or nothing…
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) October 1, 2026
Yes, there is more. So much more:
(b) Any person who commits an offense prior to January 1, 1999, for which the person is sentenced to the punishment of death may elect to be executed by electrocution by signing a written waiver waiving the right to be executed by lethal injection.
(c) The department of correction is authorized to promulgate necessary rules and regulations to facilitate the implementation of this section.
Okay, so Pike was convicted before that date (the Tennessee DOC website says she was convicted in 1996), so assuming she is presently competent, she could choose the electric chair and…
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) October 1, 2026
Oh. There is, in fact, more:
(d) If lethal injection or electrocution is held to be unconstitutional by the Tennessee supreme court under the Constitution of Tennessee, or held to be unconstitutional by the United States supreme court under the United States Constitution, or if the United States supreme court declines to review any judgment holding lethal injection or electrocution to be unconstitutional under the United States Constitution made by the Tennessee supreme court or the United States court of appeals that has jurisdiction over Tennessee, or if the Tennessee supreme court declines to review any judgment by the Tennessee court of criminal appeals holding lethal injection or electrocution to be unconstitutional under the United States or Tennessee constitutions, all persons sentenced to death for a capital crime shall be executed by any constitutional method of execution.
No sentence of death shall be reduced as a result of a determination that a method of execution is declared unconstitutional under the Constitution of Tennessee or the Constitution of the United States.
In any case in which an execution method is declared unconstitutional, the death sentence shall remain in force until the sentence can be lawfully executed by any valid method of execution.
(Paragraph breaks added for clarity.) That means basically if the courts hold that lethal injection or electrocution as a method of execution is unconstitutional, then the state can use any constitutional method of execution.
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) October 1, 2026
And, yes, there is even more:
(e) For any person who commits an offense or has committed an offense for which the person is sentenced to the punishment of death, the method of carrying out the sentence shall be by lethal injection unless subdivision (e)(1) or (e)(2) is applicable. If subdivision (e)(1) or (e)(2) is applicable, the method of carrying out the sentence shall be by electrocution. The alternative method of execution shall be used if:
(1) Lethal injection is held to be unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction in the manner described in subsection (d); or
(2) The commissioner of correction certifies to the governor that the department is unable to carry out a sentence of death by lethal injection despite making reasonable efforts to do so.
Basically, they are saying that if the courts take lethal injection off the table, or if for some reason the state of Tennessee can’t actually carry it out, then the inmate gets the chair.
So, it seems that if they really can’t execute her, she goes to the electric chair. Methods such as the firing squad don’t come into play unless they are blocked from using that method, under subsection (d).
And before you ask, yes, there is even more to the statute, dealing with when the death sentence must be expedited, but that has no application here. So we won’t be quoting it or running that gif gag again.
Now that you know the law, you will also understand how disingenuous her lawyers are being in this piece:
— Arthur Green (@ArthurG31943188) October 1, 2026
(CNN and other mainstream media love to use the picture of her crying in court, but almost never show her victim, Colleen Slemmer. Indeed, the AP photo database we use has no pictures of her.)
From the article:
In a statement early Thursday, Pike’s attorneys pointed to several possible issues.
‘Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,’ the attorneys, Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason, said in a statement. ‘We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.’
(Boldface added.) Except as you recall, she chose this method of execution. She could have opted for the electric chair herself under subsection (b).
In any case, this statute vindicates the desires of those who think the execution needs to be carried out, anyway such as Dana Loesch:
the governor is a pussy
— RM1EVO (@WaTxCa) October 1, 2026
Indeed, Donald Trump just tried to grab him.
Finally, we complained earlier that Colleen Slemmer is forgotten in all of this. These posts provide a bit of an antidote to that:
— John Scott - the TownCrier (@auburn1159) September 30, 2026
From the legal opinion he linked to:
[O]n January 11, 1995, [Pike], a student at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, told her friend Kim Iloilo, who was also a student at the facility, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she “had just felt mean that day.” The next day, January 12, 1995, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, along with Slemmer, and two other Job Corps students, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, walking away from the Job Corps center toward 17th Street. At approximately 10:15 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, Peterson, and Shipp return to the Center. Slemmer was not with them.
Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut the victim’s throat six times, beaten her, and thrown asphalt at the victim’s head. Pike told Iloilo that the victim had begged “them” to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because the victim continued to talk. Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim’s head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the victim as well. Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut the victim’s back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing “la, la, la” while she related these details about the murder. When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim’s skull. Pike replied.
Thaddeus Stevens, described as the father of the Fourteenth Amendment, once said that:
I know that there is a morbid sensibility, sometimes called mercy, which affects a few of all classes, from the priest to the clown, which has more sympathy for the murderer on the gallows than for his victim.
Let’s keep the sympathy where it belongs. Pike is in this position because of her downright sociopathic behavior. She could have made different choices and avoided all of this.
RELATED: BREAKING: Christa Pike Reportedly SURVIVES Two Attempts at Execution (VIDEO)
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