CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Does the Botched Killing of a Woman Stand the Biblical Test?

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue DD | www.virtueonline.org | October 8, 2026

She lay strapped to the gurney, awake enough to ask whether her arm was supposed to feel that way. Then came the snoring, and it went on for more than an hour until the chamber microphone was cut. The lethal injection had failed…twice. Christa Pike did not die.

Four months earlier, in May, Tennessee had tried to execute Tony Carruthers. His executioners spent more than an hour probing his arms, feet, neck and chest for a second vein before the attempt was called off. He too is still alive. Two failures in one year in one state.

Most Western democracies have abolished the death penalty. On this the United States keeps company with China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

Tennessee's Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic bishops called on Gov. Bill Lee to commute Christa Pike's sentence to life in prison following the botched lethal injection.

Not one evangelical voice was raised over this botched execution. Why was no ACNA bishop heard from over this bungled killing? Where were they? They were nowhere to be found.

Pike, 50, was rushed to a Nashville hospital after surviving two doses of pentobarbital intended to kill her for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, committed when Pike was 18. She is alive and recovering in a hospital after surviving a failed execution attempt in Tennessee on September 30, 2026. She regained consciousness and is able to speak.

She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries. Governor Lee called the outcome "deeply disturbing," ordered an independent review, and halted executions for the rest of the year.

Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, travelled to Nashville to see the sentence carried out. She called what she witnessed "a mess." Her grief is real, and any Christian answer must reckon with it.

There is a tension here that cannot be easily glossed over.

HOW THE CHURCH HAS READ IT

The Fathers were divided. Tertullian and Lactantius opposed Christian participation in executions. Augustine accepted the state's right but repeatedly pleaded with magistrates for mercy. Aquinas defended it as cutting off a diseased limb for the health of the body (Summa II-II q.64 a.2). The Reformers, Calvin especially, upheld it firmly. Article 37 of the Thirty-Nine Articles states that "the Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death, for heinous and grievous offences," and that was written against the Anabaptists. In 2018 Pope Francis revised Catechism §2267 to call the death penalty "inadmissible." The Lambeth Conferences of 1988 and 1998 opposed it, and the Episcopal Church has opposed it since 1958. ACNA has no settled position as far as I know, and its evangelical wing generally leans the Genesis 9 way.

There is also a middle position, held by figures like Oliver O'Donovan: the state may execute, but in modern conditions it should not, because of fallible courts, unequal application, and, as Tennessee now shows, the inability to do it without torture.

But here is where American practice collides most directly with the biblical standard.

EXONERATED FROM DEATH ROW

Since Furman v. Georgia in 1972, 200 people sentenced to death in 29 states have been exonerated. Larry Roberts of California became the 200th in July 2024. Together they spent some 2,600 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Against roughly 1,600 executions over the same period, that is about one person exonerated for every eight executed. The average time under a death sentence before exoneration is about 13 years. About 70% of cases involved misconduct by police, prosecutors or other officials.

The Innocence Project is the DNA side of the story. By 2020 there had been 375 DNA exonerations nationwide, and 21 of those people had served time on death row. DNA helps in only a minority of capital cases: it was a factor in only about 15% of death-row exonerations. That matters because DNA evidence is available in only about five percent of cases. Most innocent prisoners have no test that can clear them.

So what does Scripture actually say?

THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:5–6). This is the cornerstone text: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." Supporters stress three things about it. It comes before Sinai, so it is a covenant with all humanity, not Mosaic civil law limited to Israel. The ground given is the imago Dei, which is permanent. And it is a command to human agents ("by man"), not just a prediction. Calvin, Luther, and most Reformed and evangelical defenders begin here.

The Mosaic law. Exodus 21:12–14 distinguishes murder from accidental killing and requires death for murder, even taking the murderer from God's altar. Leviticus 24:17–21 sets out the lex talionis, "life for life." Numbers 35:16–34 is decisive for many. It forbids accepting a ransom for the life of a murderer (v. 31), because blood "defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed... but by the blood of him that shed it" (v. 33). Deuteronomy 19:11–13 adds "thine eye shall not pity him."

Justice as proportion, not vengeance. The lex talionis (Exod 21:23–25; Deut 19:21) is read as a limit on punishment, not a license for it. It ensures the penalty fits the crime. Defenders argue that a lesser penalty for deliberate murder cheapens the victim's life. That is the argument Colleen Slemmer's mother is in effect making.

Romans 13:1–4. Paul says the ruler "beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." The machaira was the instrument of capital judgment, so most commentators from Augustine to Calvin to Cranfield take this as apostolic approval of the state's power to execute. 1 Peter 2:13–14 says something similar: governors are sent "for the punishment of evildoers."

Paul before Festus (Acts 25:11). "If I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die." Paul accepts that some crimes deserve death and that Rome has the authority to impose it. He disputes only whether he is guilty.

The penitent thief (Luke 23:40–41). "We indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds." Christ grants him paradise but does not contradict his judgment that the sentence was just. Forgiveness and earthly penalty stand side by side.

Jesus before Pilate (John 19:11). "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." Christ acknowledges that Pilate's authority over life and death is real and comes from God, even when it is misused.

Revelation 13:10 and Matthew 26:52. "He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." Some read these as restating the Genesis 9 principle.

THE BIBLICAL CASE AGAINST (OR FOR RESTRAINT)

God spares the first murderer (Genesis 4:15). Cain kills Abel, yet God puts a mark on him "lest any finding him should kill him," and threatens sevenfold vengeance on anyone who does. The first murder in Scripture ends in exile, not execution.

God spares the great sinners. Moses killed an Egyptian (Exod 2:12). David committed adultery and arranged Uriah's murder, yet Nathan tells him, "The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die" (2 Sam 12:13). Abolitionists argue that God himself repeatedly set aside the death penalty when there was repentance.

God takes no pleasure in death. Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." On this view the purpose of justice is the sinner's turning, and execution forecloses it.

Strict evidence rules. Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 require two or three witnesses, and Deuteronomy 19:16–21 punishes false witnesses with the penalty they sought. Numbers 35:30 forbids putting anyone to death on one witness. Abolitionists argue that modern justice cannot meet this standard. They point to 200 exonerations since 1972 and to the Carruthers case: a man who represented himself at his own capital trial, whose lawyers sought a delay to test new fingerprint evidence, and whom the state strapped down anyway. (Pike, of course, never denied her guilt.)

Cities of refuge (Numbers 35; Deuteronomy 19; Joshua 20). Even the Torah built in protection against hasty bloodshed and the blood-avenger's anger. Restraint and due process were part of the system itself.

Too many capital crimes. The Mosaic law imposed death for adultery, Sabbath-breaking, blasphemy, cursing parents, and idolatry. Few Christians today want any of that restored. Abolitionists argue that if those penalties belonged to Israel's theocracy and have passed away, the same may be true of the penalty for murder. Defenders reply that Genesis 9 predates and outlasts Sinai, so murder stands apart.

The woman taken in adultery (John 8:1–11). "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her... Neither do I condemn thee." This is the text abolitionists cite most often.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38–44). "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye... But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil." Defenders answer that Jesus is addressing personal retaliation, not the duty of the magistrate.

Vengeance belongs to God (Romans 12:17–21). "Avenge not yourselves... Vengeance is mine; I will repay." Defenders point out that the very next verses (13:4) hand that vengeance to the magistrate, so the two chapters belong together.

Mercy over judgment (James 2:13). "Mercy rejoiceth against judgment."

THE CROSS

This is the deepest abolitionist argument. Christ was the innocent victim of a lawful capital sentence, and his death fulfilled the demand of "blood for blood" (Hebrews 9:22; 10:10–14). Some argue that since Calvary, the shedding of blood to cleanse the land (Num 35:33) has been satisfied once for all.

Neither do I condemn thee... go, and sin no more. For abolitionists, redemption and capital punishment cannot be reconciled. Pike, who says she has made her peace after three decades on death row, fits this argument.

THE THIRTY-YEAR WAIT

The real issue is the 30-year wait. Ecclesiastes 8:11: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." On the Bible's own terms, justice delayed for three decades is not justice. It does not deter, and it executes a different person from the one who committed the crime. The 18-year-old who killed Colleen Slemmer is not the 50-year-old who lay snoring on that gurney. Speed cuts both ways: it serves the victim's family, and it is what the biblical model assumed. Moses' system did not have death rows.

Scripture permits it; America has forfeited the right to do it.

The state may take life, but a state that cannot do it justly, swiftly, and without torture should not. The Cross remains the one lawful execution that took away the need for blood to cleanse the land.

Too many innocent people have been sent to America's death rows, and some have almost certainly been put to death. There have been too many botched executions. America should join the rest of the free world and abolish it, not because Scripture forbids it but because America cannot carry it out justly. Mob bosses have killed with impunity. Pike's own co-defendant, Tadaryl Shipp, received life with the possibility of parole, while Pike faced the needle. She deserves another shot at life. Would parole after 30 years be a bad thing?

David W. Virtue, DD, is founder and managing editor of VirtueOnline. His writings can be found at www.virtueonline.org, where you can subscribe to receive his free biweekly VIEWPOINTS. His Substack on the Middle East is at davidvirtue2.substack.com