Tennessee inmate hospitalized after two lethal injections fail to execute her
publishers 50articles 55first reported 1 Oct, 02:22 UTCdeveloping since 1 Oct · 10 editions
Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, remained alive and hospitalized Thursday after the state administered two lethal injections during a failed execution attempt, according to her attorneys and news reports. Her lawyer said she was in critical condition, Al Jazeera reported.
Witnesses said Pike, 50, complained of pain, kicked her feet and appeared to snore during Wednesday’s procedure. Her attorneys said in a federal court filing that executioners injected both syringes of lethal chemicals but Pike remained conscious and had a heartbeat. Tennessee’s Department of Correction said she was transported to an off-site medical facility.
Gov. Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive third-party review of the execution attempt and said Tennessee’s final execution scheduled for this year would not proceed as planned. Lee said Thursday that he did not know Pike’s condition and that officials still had questions about what went wrong. Pike’s lawyers have demanded her release, according to Al Jazeera.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, when Pike was 18. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Pike’s request to halt the execution Tuesday evening. Her attorneys had argued that post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from severe childhood abuse would expose her to extreme psychological suffering under Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 4 articles, 3 with the publisher's own text; 3 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 20 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 50
- Source articles
- 55
- Given to the writer
- 4, 3 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 3
- This version written
- 20 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
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