A church in the heart of the city, with a heart for the city

Tennessee bishops call on governor to commute sentence after inmate’s botched execution

October 02, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic bishops in Tennessee are calling on Gov. Bill Lee to commute death row inmate Christa Pike’s sentence to life in prison after state authorities this week botched their attempted execution of Pike by lethal injection. Pike, 50, was reportedly in critical condition at a Nashville hospital after surviving the state’s injection of two doses of pentobarbital intended to kill her for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18. Corrections officials said the drug was administered following prison protocol, but Lee has responded to Pike’s botched execution by stopping the state from carrying out the death penalty for at least the rest of this year. The group of faith leaders, including all three of the state’s Episcopal bishops, said in their Oct. 1 letter to Lee that he should “ensure that the State of Tennessee does not attempt to execute [Pike] again.” “We make this appeal mindful of the horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer and the immeasurable grief endured by her family and those who loved her,” the faith leaders said. “Nothing in our request diminishes the gravity of that crime, the preciousness of Colleen’s life, or the legitimate responsibility of the state to hold those who commit violence accountable. Yet accountability need not require another death.” The letter was signed by West Tennessee Bishop Phoebe Roaf, Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt and East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole. The three Episcopal leaders were joined by their counterparts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southeastern Synod and the Roman Catholic bishops of Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. “Our churches have long and consistently opposed capital punishment,” they said. “These convictions arise from the heart of our Christian faith. We believe every human being bears the image of God and therefore possesses a dignity that even the most grievous sin cannot erase. We believe in accountability, but we also believe in repentance, redemption, mercy, and the possibility of transformation.” Lee, in halting the one remaining execution scheduled for this year, has called for a third-party investigation into what went wrong with the lethal injection in Pike’s case. Even after the second dose, Pike remained alive and appeared to be snoring. The nature and extent of her injuries have not yet been detailed. A WPLN-TV reporter, Catherine Sweeney, who was among the media witnesses at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, said afterward that “none of it was normal.” “I covered all the executions last year, and most of the ones this year,” Sweeney said. “We haven’t seen anything like it. It went really poorly.” The Episcopal Church first expressed formal opposition to execution at the 1958 General Convention and has called on Episcopalians to urge their state governments to stop the practice. General Convention reaffirmed its opposition in 1979, 1991, 2000, 2015 and 2018, when it called for all death row prisoners to have their sentences reduced. To commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison would “not deny justice,” the Tennessee bishops said in their letter to Lee. “It declares that justice need not become vengeance and that the State of Tennessee can choose restraint, human dignity, and mercy. “As Christian bishops, we believe the Gospel continually calls us beyond cycles of violence and death toward the difficult work of justice, reconciliation, repentance, and life. In that hope, we respectfully ask you to grant clemency.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.