Christa Pike Shows It’s Time To Bring Back Firing Squads

As so-called modern Americans, we like to believe that we have risen above some of the more, so we think, violent and “barbaric” practices of our ancestors. No facet of our justice system better exemplifies this belief than the ever-evolving definition of “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” So it says, right there in the document. But at the time it was written, hanging was the most common form of capital punishment in not only the United States but in the Western World. Yet no one is hanged today, not since 1996, and it had been falling out of fashion long before Bill Bailey took his long drop.

Our sensibilities have changed, and we no longer deem it humane to execute criminals in such a fashion. We initially tried to replace it with the electric chair, using, at the time, modern technology to quickly and efficiently deal with the criminal element. Then we supposedly upgraded to even more humane methods, namely the gas chamber and lethal injection. The latter currently stands as the most common form of execution in the United States.

Despite any claims toward being more “humane,” executions by lethal injection can still be horribly botched. Case in point: the failed execution of murderer Christa Pike in Tennessee on Wednesday.

Pike remained among the living after the administration of two doses of lethal drugs as part of her scheduled execution Wednesday evening. After the botched lethal injection, Pike was transported to a local hospital, where she bafflingly received “lifesaving medical care,” according to her attorneys.

In response to this embarrassing muck-up, Republican Gov. Bill Lee immediately halted any further executions in 2026 and ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred,” according to Fox News.

In contrast to Lee’s limp-wristed act to deny justice even further by halting further executions, gubernatorial candidate and current Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said, “This situation is tragic. Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer. … The answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly.”

Blackburn is exactly right. People who commit especially heinous crimes should be dealt with via the death penalty and dealt with both efficiently and quickly. Christa Pike should have shuffled off her mortal coil long ago, and justice should have been dispensed with a far more reliable tool.

Many people are squeamish about the electric chair, possibly due to the infamously horrifying scene from the 1999 film The Green Mile. Though no doubt many of our death row inmates deserve such a fate, there can still be mishaps with the Old Sparky, and in some cases it can take more than 15 minutes for someone to die. But it sure is hard to botch a firing squad.

The firing squad represents another execution method that we’ve nearly abandoned because of its supposed “barbarity,” yet it stands as the very definition of swift and efficient. It’s been used in executions for centuries, with the first execution by shooting in English America going all the way back to Jamestown in 1608. And we’ve even evolved beyond the old scene of a five-man squad lining a blindfolded man up against the wall — we now have automated systems that can take humans, and any potential guilt for those who pull the triggers, out of the equation. Death by firing squad comes in less than a minute, while death from lethal injection can take up to two hours, or not at all in Pike’s case.

Now, some may harbor feelings of sympathy toward Pike because of her status as a woman or because they do not believe her crime merits the death penalty, so let me fill you in on what she did to land on death row.

A jury of Pike’s peers found her guilty of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, Pike’s 19-year-old Job Corps classmate. Pike had come to believe that Slemmer was trying to steal Pike’s boyfriend, and conspired with two others to kill her. After luring Slemmer into the woods with the promise of marijuana, Pike and her boyfriend proceeded to brutally torture and murder Slemmer. Pike even kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir. You can read the full grisly details here.

This isn’t one of those true crime podcast stories that exonerates an innocent person or a conspiracy that only TikTok sleuths can uncover. She killed Colleen Slemmer in an exceptionally sadistic and premeditated fashion, and she bragged about it. No matter the tragic circumstances of her early life, Pike must be held accountable for her actions, and the magnitude of her crime demands the death penalty.

Not only as justice for the victim and her family, but also for society at large and even Pike herself. She shouldn’t have sat on death row for decades, and her botched execution undermines the pursuit of true justice — not only in her case but in all cases going forward, as seen in Gov. Lee’s suspension of further executions. Executing the condemned, on the day of their conviction, duly renders to them that which they are owed for their crimes. Denying that or delaying it is itself an injustice. We used to recognize this moral fact, hence the long drop and the firing squad as preferred methods of execution.

By trying to deny this fact and fool ourselves into thinking we’ve become more “humane,” we actually end up making ourselves more barbaric, as pointed out by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Andrew Walker.

Now Pike is reportedly in critical condition at the hospital after a “cruel and torturous” botched execution, according to her lawyers. Why they are trying to save her life when she was already slated for death is beyond me, probably yet more consideration toward “being humane,” but Pike wouldn’t be suffering right now if the state had possessed the spine to put five bullets in her heart the day she was convicted. The so-called “humane” option has rendered more suffering than a bullet would have, and it has stained the justice owed to Pike and her victim.

Currently, only five states — Mississippi, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Utah — allow the firing squad, as does the federal government. It should be all 50 states, and they should utilize that method decisively. The death penalty represents true justice if the crime is heinous enough, and thus the firing squad, delivered quickly upon the condemned, represents the best method for dispensing that justice.

Hayden Daniel is a staff editor at The Federalist. He previously worked as an editor at The Daily Wire and as deputy editor/opinion editor at The Daily Caller. He received his B.A. in European History from Washington and Lee University with minors in Philosophy and Classics. Follow him on Twitter at @HaydenWDaniel