Sen. Marsha Blackburn is seizing on Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike to push for a return to the electric chair.
Pike, who was slated to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in almost 200 years, remains alive and in critical condition after two full doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her on Wednesday.
That led Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, to call for the use of an electric chair in future executions.
Calling Pike’s failed execution “tragic,” Blackburn, 74, who is the GOP nominee in the state’s gubernatorial race, said it prolonged the grief process for the family of Pike’s victim.
“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,” the senator wrote on social media. “As your governor, I will do just that.”
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder after confessing to killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995.
Blackburn also appeared on The Matt Murphy Show on Thursday, where she expanded on her position.
“A violent criminal who goes through a trial gets a death penalty,” Blackburn said. “They exhaust all of their appeals. Then you want to see that execution carried out, and carried out successfully because that is the only way that the victim’s family and loved ones are going to get closure. And it is important that that be done.”
She added, “If there are these issues with lethal injection, the electric chair is something Tennessee can use, then maybe we need to use the electric chair.”
Blackburn also said a violent criminal who has been handed the death penalty does not “need to be sitting on death row for three decades... this has just got to be straightened out.”
Tennessee Pastor Kevin Riggs said there was “nothing Christian” about Blackburn’s comments.
“Marsha claims to be a follower of Jesus and I would encourage her... she needs to get on her knees and pray and repent for that horrible, God-forsaken statement,” Riggs said.
He added, “The death penalty is immoral, and it has no place in civilized society.”
