Posted on 10/11/2026 3:26:43 PM PDT by Twotone
The remarkable survival of Christa Pike after an attempted execution in Tennessee poses equally remarkable legal questions about whether a second state attempt to kill her would violate the Constitution.
snip
At the time, it was the only known U.S. case of a condemned person surviving an attempted execution.
Francis, who at age 16 had been convicted of murdering a former employer, challenged a second electrocution by arguing it would violate 14th Amendment due process rights, a 5th Amendment prohibition on multiple punishments, and amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment.
Attorneys for Christa Pike could likely raise similar claims, legal experts say.
The high court in 1947, however, narrowly rejected them.
In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Stanley Reed, the Supreme Court concluded Francis' constitutional rights would not be violated by electrocuting him a second time (which Louisiana ultimately did).
"Accidents happen for which no man is to blame," Reed wrote in the decision.
"Even the fact that petitioner has already been subjected to a current of electricity does not make his subsequent execution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other execution," he wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.com ...
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They should have continued until dead But i have a strange feeling it was botched to send a message
Since the state executioner screwed up a previous execution, and screwed up with Pike twice, it seems a safe bet that the state executioner is an activist trying to outrage people and make them oppose the death penalty. I do not credit this to mere incompetence.
Despite the justice system’s self congratulatory myth of going by precedents and upholding the US Constitution, the wacky “liberal” justices go by personal prejudice and preconceived ideas to fit into their biases.
So, the past is not prologue for the SCOTUS.
(”What’s past is prologue” by Shakespeare in The Tempest.)
The Bee: “Tennessee prison officials unable to figure out how to execute woman whose ventilator is plugged into the wall.”
Really intriguing theory.
Like the guy in The Green Mile by Stephen King. But for an injection execution.
“Percy is supposed to wet the conductive sponge that will transmit the electric current to Coffey’s body. However, in a moment of cruelty, Percy deliberately chooses not to wet the sponge, ensuring the current will not flow properly and causing a slow, agonizing death.”
————YouTube synopsis.
.
The scene is depicted as a “horrifying affair” for all involved — Edgecomb, Percy, and the audience — as Coffey’s body burns and sizzles in the chair, and the execution fails to be quick or humane
Firing squads are more effective with less room for error.
They better get someone who knows how to place an IV this time!
But it was already grimly amusing in a macabre way that after trying to kill her the same government staff took her to a hospital “for live saving treatments”.
“The remarkable survival of Christa Pike“
She and her DEI witches sabotaged it.
Most likely.
Assume that this is the case. And there should be a memorandum on executions until they find out what's going on.
Back in the day, they called it "witchcraft".
Strada, head of the Dept. of Corrections in Tennessee, resigned. Apparently, Strada was formerly employed in Arizona at a facility that experienced problematic executions.
Likely all they would have had to do in Pike’s case is PULL THE PLUG...
My theory is the pushed the needle in too far and it went through the vein and into the muscle.
There’s nothing wrong with the firing squad. That’s what I would want.
Not to be THAT guy, but Percy sabotaged the execution of
Eduard Delacroix, not Coffey.
Good job.
Notice I covered myself by directly quoting a source instead of implying I myself made a mistake.
By the way, I hated that movie, I oppose the leftist Stephen King’s politics and I am all for the death penalty.
I was a Paramedic for 5 years, and yes both Ivs were blown. In modern medicine iv catheters are plastic while the metal needle is removed. Anyone that has placed more than 2 Ivs would know that they were blown by the pain and swelling. I read somewhere that currently licensed staff are barred from executions because of oaths and standards. I would volunteer to do it for travel expenses.
Bending the needle shows a complete incompetence by the staff.
I read that the firing squad is the second most effective and humane method of execution. The guillotine is first.
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