Doctor who oversaw Christa Pike’s failed lethal injection botched another execution just months ago, as local senator calls for electric chair to be used instead

DAILYMAIL • 1h ago

By RACHEL BOWMAN, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER 16:58 01 Oct 2026, updated 17:26 01 Oct 2026

The doctor who oversaw Christa Pike’s failed lethal injection also supervised another Tennessee death row inmate’s botched execution in May.

Pike, 50, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, was administered two syringes of pentobarbital at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville late Wednesday.

But she was still alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and was rushed to a hospital by ambulance, her attorneys said.

She remains hospitalized, but her legal team claims they have not been informed about her condition and no updates have been given.

Her lawyers told the Daily Mail they expect to get more information later today.

Pike’s case marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, both of which were overseen by the same physician, Dr Mark Fowler, reported WSMV.

In May, Fowler oversaw the failed execution of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994, after medical personnel spent more than an hour unsuccessfully establishing the IV access required for lethal injection.

Carruthers’ sister filed a complaint against Fowler with the Tennessee Department of Health, claiming he suffered excruciating pain and partial paralysis from a stroke as a result of the botched execution.

Maria DeLiberato, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Carruthers, witnessed the attempts and said the team tried to insert an IV in Carruthers’ arm, hand and foot before Fowler attempted to insert a central line.

The complaint accuses Fowler of violating medical ethics by participating in an execution; by injecting Carruthers with the anesthetic lidocaine without first establishing that he was not allergic to it; and by continuing the search for a vein despite his ‘visible agony and distress.’

The complaint also says he was unqualified to place a central line because he had not done so in over a decade.

Fowler told NPR that he does not participate in the execution except to declare the time of death and did not have further comment.

In the end, Governor Bill Lee called off Carruthers’ execution and gave him a one-year reprieve.

After Pike’s failed lethal injections, Lee ordered ‘a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred’ and said that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.

‘Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State´s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,’ he said.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running to replace Lee as governor this year as he is term-limited, has called for the return of the electric chair after Pike’s execution failed.

‘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,’ she wrote on X.

‘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. As your governor, I will do just that.’

Following Pike’s injections, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that it ‘followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.’

The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.

Tennessee announced in 2024 that it was switching from a three-drug series for lethal injections to the single drug pentobarbital.

That came more than two years after the state abruptly halted the execution of Oscar Smith and acknowledged it had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were tested properly.

Robin M Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called Pike’s failed execution the worst in modern history.

‘This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,’ Maher told the New York Times. ‘There is no precedent.’

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