Doctor Who Oversaw Botched Execution Compares Self to Jesus, Still Wants Inmate Executed

The doctor who oversaw the botched execution of Christa Pike has broken his silence, stating he believes Pike still deserves to die and drawing parallels between his role and that of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Mark Fowler, a 69-year-old Bible school teacher, told New York Magazine that he believes Pike should be executed for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Fowler's reasoning includes providing a sense of justice for Slemmer's mother, who witnessed the execution attempt. He also stated that he has no doubt the inmates he has helped put to death deserved their punishment.

Fowler, who was paid $3,000 for his role in seven executions, described carrying out death sentences as a moral obligation. "How can you morally say, 'I'm for the death penalty so long as someone else does the work?'" he asked. "I do things that nobody wants to do."

On September 30, 2026, Fowler was in the death chamber anteroom at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee, when prison officials announced that Pike, 50, was still alive after receiving two doses of the lethal drug phenobarbital. After 45 minutes, significantly longer than the usual 10 minutes for an execution, the warden informed Fowler, "She's not dead." Fowler waited another half hour before the deputy commissioner ordered the execution halted, requiring emergency treatment to save Pike's life.

Investigators later determined that the IV lines had been improperly inserted, causing the lethal drugs to seep into Pike's arm tissue instead of entering her bloodstream. Within two weeks, Pike had recovered and returned to prison.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended executions for the remainder of 2026 while Pike's legal team works to prevent a future lethal injection.

Fowler acknowledged that mistakes were made, specifically that staff should have intervened when Pike complained of arm pain. "They should have stopped and reassessed, and they didn't," he said. He suggested that Tennessee should consider returning to a three-drug execution protocol that includes potassium chloride.

Fowler, who has since shut down his Facebook account due to criticism, defended his actions. "I'm not an evil, vicious person. I'm not unscrupulous. I'm not uncaring, and I'm not incompetent," he stated. He compared the criticism he has faced to the criticism Jesus received, saying, "People said bad things about Jesus, didn't they?"

Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. In her first public statement since the failed execution on October 30, Pike stated, "I don't know why I survived that night. I don't know what comes next... Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time."

Fowler, however, offered a starkly different perspective: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away."