Attorneys for Christa Pike, the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row, are asking a court to consider hanging as an alternative method of execution as they challenge whether the state’s lethal injection protocol can be carried out constitutionally in her case.
WKRN News 2 reporter Katelyn Quisenberry said Pike is scheduled to be executed on September 30 for the 1995 killing of a fellow Knoxville Job Corps member, a crime committed when Pike was 18 years old. Her attorneys are arguing that her physical, medical and psychological conditions could make execution under the state’s existing procedures unnecessarily painful.
The request has led to an unusual courtroom debate over a method Tennessee has not used for more than a century, with lawyers questioning an expert about how judicial hanging causes death, how often it fails and what would happen if the procedure were performed incorrectly.
Pike’s Lawyers Point To Problems With Lethal Injection
Quisenberry reported that Pike’s legal team has been challenging Tennessee’s execution protocols while citing what happened during the attempted execution of Tony Carruthers, whose lethal injection could not proceed after medical personnel were unable to establish the required intravenous access.
Pike’s attorneys argue that her own circumstances create additional concerns.
Court filings cited in the broader case describe what her lawyers call “unique physical, medical, and psychological conditions,” including concerns about her veins and a blood disorder, as well as psychological trauma that they argue could make certain parts of the execution process especially distressing.
Their argument is not simply that an execution would be frightening or painful in a general sense. They are asking whether Pike’s particular conditions could create a constitutionally unacceptable risk of prolonged or needless suffering.
That distinction matters because the legal challenge is focused on how the sentence is carried out, not on whether Pike was convicted of murder or whether the death sentence exists.
Hanging Emerges As An Alternative
During the hearing, Quisenberry said Pike’s attorneys spent considerable time questioning a potential judicial hanging expert.
One of the first questions was basic but grim: what are the two ways hanging can result in death?
The courtroom also heard testimony about failure rates associated with different execution methods. One figure presented during the hearing placed the unsuccessful rate for hanging at about 3.12%, while lethal injection was described as having a higher failure rate of roughly 7.2%.
Those numbers were raised as part of the defense effort to show that hanging could potentially be carried out more reliably than lethal injection.
Pike’s attorneys also argued that the method requires relatively simple materials such as wood, rope and nails.
Prosecutors pushed back on that description, emphasizing that a properly conducted hanging requires far more precision than simply having basic materials available.
A successful judicial hanging depends on factors such as the construction of a trap door, the length and placement of the rope and calculations tailored to the prisoner. If those calculations are wrong, the result may be strangulation rather than the rapid death the method is intended to produce.
The State Warns Hanging Can Go Wrong Too
During questioning, the prosecution highlighted testimony that an improperly positioned ligature or incorrect calculation could cause the condemned person to slowly strangle.
The expert confirmed that risk.
Another part of the testimony addressed historical accounts of people moving or “dancing” on the rope while strangling, something presented as a potentially painful and anxiety-producing outcome.
That undercuts any suggestion that hanging is automatically a simple or humane alternative.
The debate therefore puts Pike’s attorneys in a difficult position: they are arguing that Tennessee’s lethal injection process may expose her to an unacceptable risk of suffering, while proposing another execution method that has its own history of complications when performed incorrectly.
It is an uncomfortable legal question, but that is precisely what the hearing is trying to resolve. The court is not being asked to decide which method sounds less disturbing in the abstract, but whether a particular method can meet constitutional standards when applied to Pike.
Tennessee Has Not Used Hanging In More Than A Century
Quisenberry reported that only three states still list hanging as a legally available execution method in some circumstances.
New Hampshire allows it if lethal injection is found impractical, Washington permits it when a prisoner chooses it, and Delaware retains it for a narrow group of older cases.
Tennessee, meanwhile, currently specifies lethal injection and, for certain older offenses, electrocution as authorized methods.
Pike’s crime occurred before the 1999 cutoff that governs eligibility for electrocution, but her legal team has nevertheless argued that another method should be considered if the permitted options are found unconstitutional under her circumstances.
Hanging has not been used as Tennessee’s standard execution method since the early 20th century, after the state moved to the electric chair.
That history makes the request extraordinary, although not necessarily impossible if courts conclude the existing methods cannot lawfully be used.
Pike’s Medical And Psychological Conditions Are Central
The hearing has also focused heavily on Pike’s health.
Her attorneys have argued that a blood condition known as thrombocytosis, combined with what they describe as small or compromised veins, could complicate the IV process required for lethal injection.
They have also pointed to Pike’s history of sexual abuse and asserted post-traumatic stress disorder, arguing that aspects of the execution process could trigger severe psychological distress.
State attorneys have not disputed that Pike experienced serious trauma in her life, but they have challenged whether those circumstances make the execution protocol unconstitutional.
Medical testimony in the broader proceedings has also addressed whether IV access would actually be unusually difficult in Pike’s case, with state witnesses pointing to previous successful blood draws and IV placements.
That disagreement shows why this case is being examined so closely. The issue is not whether Pike has health conditions, but whether those conditions create a sufficiently high risk of severe suffering under Tennessee’s planned procedure.
A Historic Execution Could Follow
If Pike is executed as scheduled, Quisenberry reported that she would become the first woman put to death in Tennessee since 1819.
She would also be the first person executed in the state who was 18 at the time of the crime since Tennessee reinstated the death penalty in 1972.
Pike was convicted in the killing of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student in Knoxville, in a case that has remained one of Tennessee’s most notorious death penalty prosecutions.
Her attorneys are not denying the conviction as part of this method-of-execution challenge. Their focus is on whether the state can carry out the sentence without violating constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The hearing therefore sits at the intersection of two very different questions: the seriousness of Pike’s crime and the government’s obligation to carry out an execution within constitutional limits.
Quisenberry’s report makes clear that the request for hanging is not being presented as a dramatic preference for an old-fashioned punishment, but as part of a legal strategy challenging Tennessee’s current execution system after recent difficulties with lethal injection.
Whether a court accepts that argument remains unresolved, but with Pike’s September 30 execution date approaching, the state may soon have to confront a question it has not seriously faced in generations: whether hanging could once again become a legally acceptable way to carry out a death sentence.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
