Posted on 10/05/2026 4:36:53 AM PDT by xxqqzz
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — An ambulance is designed to save a life, but Wednesday night, one was called to Riverbend Maximum Security Prison after the State of Tennessee tried to end one.
The failed execution of Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death for brutally torturing and murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995, has raised a lot of questions, including why prison officials called emergency medical services so Pike could receive lifesaving care after attempting to execute her just minutes prior.
Pike received two doses of the lethal drug, pentobarbital and survived on Wednesday. According to Pike’s attorneys, she’s in critical condition, receiving lifesaving care at the hospital.
“The first emotion I felt was shock,” Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said. “We’ve never had someone survive an execution effort after receiving not one, but two doses of execution drugs.”
Tennessee has a strict set of guidelines, called its death penalty protocol, that it must follow when executing an inmate. The protocol advises the state to administer a second dose of pentobarbital if the first dose doesn’t result in death.
However, the protocol doesn’t tell the state what to do if a second dose doesn’t work.
“When that second drug did not work, it seemed like the staff were simply flummoxed. They didn’t know what to do,” Maher said. “That resulted in a flurry of activity, ultimately bringing emergency vehicles to take her to the hospital.”
In that moment, Tennessee’s goal switched from carrying out Pike’s death sentence to trying to save her life. It seems like a contradiction, but Maher told WKRN it was the state’s only option.[
(Excerpt) Read more at wane.com ...
I guess we are messed up enough to where we need to have death row inmates sign a DNR.
Bill Hemmer of Fox News this morning asserted that the craven killer was “brain dead” - yet I’ve not read or heard this elsewhere.
Has anyone?
So would a dose of Fentanyl.
The sentence should have been carried out by Canadians. They have a lot of recent experience with this sort of thing.
Shoot her in the face and be done with it.
L
Just use a firing squad for me
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