EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Tennessee's botched execution of Christa Pike overshadows the 1995 murder victim and threatens the future of capital punishment in the state.
Tennessee's failed attempt to lethally inject 30-year death row inmate Christa Pike Wednesday evening has not only put her execution in jeopardy, it may lead to the state taking capital punishment off the table altogether, according to the former Knoxville police chief who oversaw her arrest in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
"I'll be surprised if there are any executions in Tennessee in the near term, if again, ever," Phil Keith, who led Knoxville's police department from 1988 until 2004, told Fox News Digital.