Dr Mark Fowler, the physician set to oversee Christa Pike's execution, botched up a lethal injection in May

A doctor involved in a botched execution earlier this year is set to oversee the planned execution of Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee. Dr. Mark Fowler had supervised the May execution attempt of Tony Carruthers, which was stopped after medical staff was unable to establish IV access after trying for more than an hour. Christa Pike is set to be executed on Wednesday (September 30), unless she is granted a last-minute legal reprieve.

Fowler and controversial executions

Mark Walton Fowler of Union City, Tennessee, became a subject of media and public scrutiny after the controversial execution by lethal injection of 69-year-old Byron Black, who was convicted for the 1989 murders of his girlfriend and her two young daughters. Fowler's identity became known after a warden inadvertently let slip his name while announcing Black's death.


In May, Fowler and his team botched up the planned execution of Tony Carruthers, a 57-year-old man on death row in Nashville, Tennessee. During the procedure, Fowler was unable to secure the central line. After Carruthers had spent over an hour being repeatedly pierced by Fowler and the IV team, the execution was deferred.

Several twists and turns have led Fowler to the current stage of his career. He had studied public administration at the University of Tennessee (UT), before taking up law. Fowler spent three years as a public defender, even representing a number of capital punishment defendants. In the mid-1990s, Fowler made a surprising career switch, retraining to become a doctor at the UT Memphis College of Medicine.

For the first decade of his medical practice, Fowler worked as an Emergency Room (ER) physician before becoming a family doctor. Today, the majority of his income comes from several medical directorships, including weight loss and aesthetic clinics, and a wound care facility, according to a report by The Guardian.

Fowler occasionally writes opinion columns for the Union City Daily Messenger, a local newspaper, which offer a glimpse into his strongly rightwing and conservative worldview.

Who is Christa Pike?

Christa Pike, aged 50, is scheduled to be executed at a prison in Nashville on September 30. She was convicted of torturing and killing a 19-year-old girl at a job training camp in 1995. Pike committed the crime alongside her then 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was handed a life sentence.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has rejected Pike's clemency petition, though her defence is hoping for a last-minute relief from the US Supreme Court. If the execution goes ahead, Pike would become the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.