The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row was still alive after she was administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said in a motion seeking to halt her execution Wednesday night, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.
At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said “executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals” and Christa Pike was “still alive and snoring,” her lawyers said in a federal court filing.
They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice.”
Sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me
Sounds like you aren’t a MAGA Republican. They love this type of shit.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the landmark majority opinion regarding lethal injection in the 2019 case Bucklew v. Precythe
In a 5–4 decision split along ideological lines, Gorsuch ruled that the Eighth Amendment—which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment—“does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death”
The ruling affirmed that under Supreme Court precedent, an inmate challenging a state’s method of execution—even under unique, personal medical circumstances—must prove that a feasible, readily available alternative exists that would significantly reduce severe pain. Gorsuch ruled that Bucklew failed to provide the operational details necessary to show that nitrogen gas was a viable, easily implemented alternative for the state
Gorsuch also used the opinion to criticize what he viewed as legal gamesmanship, pointing out that Bucklew had managed to delay his execution for more than two decades through continuous legal appeals.
This fiasco has been nothing but cruel and unusual punishment over and over again for this woman for a matter that should have been settled 30 years ago. Southern states make me sick - led by the “party of life” my ass. They don’t give a single shit about “life” once that person is born.
Common misunderstanding. They don’t give a shit about the unborn. It’s all for show and to punish.
it’s always easy to speak for something that isn’t born yet
conservative voters are obsessed with executions, they love it.
This country is an extremely dangerous combination of cruel and stupid.
I’ve been hearing for years that it’s very hard for the government to find qualified doctors who will work with them on this technology or help administer it, and that makes it extremely hard to carry out reliably. This is far from an isolated incident.
It’s also pretty hard to source the chemicals because some of the manufacturers won’t sell when they find out what it’s being used for.
Kinda makes you wonder about the whole concept when no one wants to be involved.
I wonder if it was like jury duty and anyone could be randomly selected to be the executioner if support for the death penalty would change.
Edit: By wonder, I mean it somewhat flippantly. Like “maybe this ain’t such a grand idea if no one wants to be anywhere near it”
There is absolutely a subset of basically any population that would volunteer. Maybe only once, but they would.
Because executions violate the Hippocratic oath.
The angle of execution being a harm is pretty obvious, but on the other hand they could reduce suffering (a harm) by by helping ensure it’s done right. But I guess the oath doesn’t compel them to reduce harm, just not add to it.
In the US, any medical professional participating in an execution loses their credentials. That’s the bare minimum consequence but even Americans sometimes do something slightly right on occasion.
Reminds me of the scene from I’m A Virgo, where Elijah Wood explains why he’s becoming an executioner.
Just a reminder that Tennessee has botched so much of this case for decades. There’s no doubt that this woman is guilty, but for fuck’s sake, look at this from Wikipedia:
Slemmer’s mother repeatedly asked Tennessee authorities to return the fragment of skull for proper burial, but it remained in the state’s possession as evidence. Authorities stated it would not be returned while the case remained open, awaiting Pike’s execution. In a documentary that premiered September 2026 ahead of Pike’s potential execution, Dead Woman Walking: Pike vs. Tennessee, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, confirmed that after 16 years of fighting and writing letters, she had received the skull from the state of Tennessee but has still not received “the last piece of her daughter’s skull.”
Yeah, that’s right, the State of Tennessee still has a piece of the victim’s skull and refuses to give it back to the family. The people who tell you that this was satanic are keeping a piece of the victim’s body as a trophy. Sounds like they would know…
I mean is it really more humane than a guillotine or are we just doing lethal injections to make those witnessing it feel more comfortable?
As long as it’s built properly a guillotine is pretty effective the first go around.
It’s easier to argue in court since tha paralytic part of the three injections hides any possible reactions. That’s why they’ve had recent trouble doing lethal injections; the reactions start to show and give away the game when you don’t paralyze fully.
It’s also interesting there have problems with nitrogen as well. It tells me they haven’t set it up so they purge co2 properly. Likely deliberately.
i assume the agonizing part for nitrogen is gasping for air, is not like going to sleep and never waking up. so its not really humane
I think an explosion box would be the best. (I am anti death penalty)
Like a bomb calorimeter? We could find out how many calories in each person as they go!
You’d think there’d be a sort of double-jeopardy thing in relation to lethal injections.
Something like the old Western movie trope of how you can’t be hanged twice.
charly kirk only took one lethal injection and died. What a loser.
well it was technically a firing squad unofficially.
What a clusterfuck of a life.
Abused by your parents until you turn 18, and then the state takes over.
America in a nutshell
I was thinking the same thing when I read it. No doubt we’ll see an army of public servant dickheads in expensive suits lining up in front of the cameras speaking in a solemn voice about what happened before saying they accept full responsibility, and then go right back to abusing her through legalistic obstructionism and bullshit. The US really is an awful country.
State sanctioned murder is the most fucked up thing, except for state-sanctioned torture followed by murder.
The cruelty is the point.
Jesus fucking Christ this is a country of sociopaths.
I’m against the death penalty because I think it debases our society, but I wouldn’t say we’re sociopaths. Have you read up on what this woman did? She tortured a girl for hours, bashed her skull in with a rock, then carried a piece of the skull in her pocket, showed it to friends and bragged about the murder.
If she was a billionaire who opened up a datacenter, you all would be yelling “Botch it again!”
She tortured a girl for hours, bashed her skull in with a rock, then carried a piece of the skull in her pocket, showed it to friends and bragged about the murder
Seems sociopathic.
I also think this weird “tit for tat” obsession with what amounts to a medieval concept of justice is also sociopathic. That because someone has killed, that some how killing them undoes the initial injustice, well, its sociopathic. There is also ample evidence that it doesn’t accomplish any of is purported goals. A society, the response to a killing is to create more killing?
Seems sociopathic.
“Killing people is wrong, so we’re going to kill you.”
Its a fundamentally reactionary tautology. Laws serves to protect but does not bind. Because I’m the one engaging in the behavior I have a problem with others doing, its fine.
Her killing is legally sanctioned, the one she did when she was younger was not. Something being legal, of course, does not mean it’s morally justified.
I totally agree with you on everything except for characterizing human desire for revenge and justice as sociopathy. Sure, it’s barbaric and beneath a civilized society, but they’re not the same.
I don’t know what else to call it then, when a society collectively engages in a behavior we would individually characterize as sociopathic. And sure, there are degrees to these things, but the woman isn’t roaming the streets continuing to kill. She’s already behind bars and has been for decades. If you believe such a thing as justice exists, it was served long, long ago. Whatever this society is engaging in, its not justice, and its closer to what the accused did that it is to whatever could undo what the accused did.
We don’t individually characterize murderous grudges as sociopathic. We characterize it as dysfunctional. Hell, in our fiction, we characterize it as somewhat heroic. There’s a popular four part movie series about a man who goes on a killing spree after some assholes kill his dog and steal his car. If John Wick was killing innocent hobos just because it made him chuckle, we would characterize that as sociopathic.
The civilized thing for John Wick to do is to call the cops, report the crime, and let them deal with it. And that’s how we as a society should handle such situations too.
"But your honor the sentence has indeed been carried out and state has no further business with client, I expect their release tomorrow "
It’s all murder
“We’re going to murder you to show that murder is wrong. You can’t just go killing people to get revenge because you came up with some elaborate ritual to justify it!” Always seemed like a weird take.
Also, we murder murderers but we don’t rape rapists. We don’t rape rapists because we have to be clear that rape is always wrong, no matter what. But we’re ok sending the message that murder is ok when we do it, just not when you do it.
A lethal dose of opiates.
I feel like if a execution doesn’t work, the person should be free to go. They already went through the execution and served their sentance.
Then the government would actually give a shit.
Or just get rid of the death penalty because it’s barbaric
Okay, but what if the person you’re lining up for death is really unpopular, and I can run a political campaign promising to kill them?
I don’t know about “Free to go” but definitely not, “let’s keep executing them until it sticks.”
