Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Tennessee are calling on Gov. Bill Lee to spare the life of death-row inmate Christa Pike after the state twice attempted and failed to execute her by lethal injection, an extraordinary episode that has renewed questions about capital punishment and the dignity of human life.
Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed Sept. 30 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. According to Vatican News, Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug before being transported to a hospital for medical treatment.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said after the attempted execution that officials had followed “every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.” The department added that the lethal injection chemical used under the protocol “has consistently been effective” and that the protocol did not permit additional procedures beyond those attempted that evening.
Following the failed execution, Gov. Bill Lee suspended executions in Tennessee for the remainder of 2026 and ordered an independent review into what happened, according to Vatican News.
In an October 1 joint statement, the bishops appealed directly to Lee to commute Pike’s death sentence and prevent another execution attempt.
The bishops did not minimize the brutality of the crime for which Pike was sentenced to death. They acknowledged the murder of Slemmer and the profound suffering endured by her family, while affirming the responsibility of civil authorities to punish serious crimes and protect society.
“Yet accountability need not require another death,” the bishops wrote, according to Vatican News.
Their appeal centered on a fundamental principle of Catholic teaching — that human dignity is not erased even by the commission of grave evil.
“Every human being bears the image of God,” the bishops said.
They urged Lee to replace Pike’s death sentence with a punishment capable of protecting the public while preserving her life.
“Such an act does not deny justice,” the bishops wrote. “It declares that justice need not become vengeance and that the State of Tennessee can choose restraint, human dignity, and mercy.”
The appeal reflects the Catholic Church’s current teaching on capital punishment.
In 2018, Pope Francis approved a revision to paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church declaring the death penalty “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
The revised teaching recognizes that capital punishment was historically regarded as an extreme means of safeguarding the common good, but points to a growing understanding of human dignity and the development of modern detention systems capable of protecting society without permanently depriving an offender of the possibility of redemption.
The Catechism therefore states that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
Pope Leo XIV has continued to emphasize the Church’s defense of human dignity in discussions of capital punishment. In an April 2026 video message cited by Vatican News, the Pope declared, “The right to life is the very foundation of every other human right.”
“For this reason, only when a society safeguards the sanctity of human life will it flourish and prosper,” Pope Leo said.
The Tennessee bishops had already appealed to Lee before Pike’s scheduled execution, describing capital punishment as “an attack on human dignity and unnecessary to protect society while still punishing those convicted of horrible crimes,” according to Vatican News.
The failed September 30 execution has now intensified that appeal.
Catholic Mobilizing Network, an organization advocating for abolition of the death penalty, also responded to the incident by urging Americans to reject state-sanctioned executions.
“There is nothing normal about taking a life,” Executive Director Krisanne Valliancourt Murphy said, according to Vatican News.
Murphy also emphasized that concern for Pike does not exclude compassion for Slemmer’s family.
“We pray for Ms. Pike’s current condition, and we pray for the victim Colleen Slemmer’s family as this situation must surely be retraumatizing,” she said.
The September incident was not Tennessee’s first troubled execution attempt this year. Vatican News reported that an attempted lethal injection of death-row inmate Tony Carruthers was called off in May 2026.
For Catholic opponents of capital punishment, Pike’s case therefore involves more than questions about whether Tennessee can devise a more reliable execution procedure.
“The Church teaches that the death penalty is ‘inadmissible’ because every human life is sacred, no matter the harm one has caused or suffered, and because we have more effective ways to protect society than to take another life,” Murphy said.
As Tennessee investigates what went wrong inside its execution chamber, the bishops are asking state leaders to consider a different response altogether — one that recognizes the horror of Slemmer’s murder, holds Pike accountable for her crime, protects society and still refuses to extinguish another human life.
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