'We could all hear her breathing': Witnessing the failed execution of Christa Pike
uncertain
her → hear → Pike
Last week, I was one of the seven media witnesses who observed Tennessee fail to execute convicted murderer Christa Pike, the first woman to face the death penalty in the state in almost 200 years.
asserted
Tennessee → observe → years
From our previous reporting, each of us had an inkling that the lethal injection process might not go according to plan.
uncertain
process → have → plan
Pike's attorneys had asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to allow her to be hanged instead, citing concerns that a platelet disorder and small veins would make the actual injection not only painful but ineffective.
asserted
injection → ask → concerns
And Tennessee had already botched an execution attempt in May, when healthcare workers failed to establish complete IV access into Tony Carruthers, who was sentenced to death after being convicted for his involvement in the kidnapping and murders of three people in 1994.
uncertain
who → botch → 1994
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said after the failed execution of Carruthers, who has maintained he is innocent, the state wouldn't try again to kill him for at least a year.
asserted
state → say → year
After Pike left the execution chamber in an ambulance on Sept. 30
asserted
Pike → leave → Sept.
, Lee announced he would suspend lethal injections for the rest of the year.
asserted
he → announce → year
The morning of Pike's scheduled execution, I and the other media witnesses arrived at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville by 8:30 a.m. and waited to be ushered into the prison with nothing but our driver's licenses in hand.
asserted
I → schedule → hand
The plan was to wait inside until Pike began her journey to the death chamber at 10 a.m.
asserted
Pike → wait → a.m.
But we didn't make it that far.
asserted
we → make → it
Before the Department of Correction's staffers began moving us away from the outdoor media tent and our belongings, the reporters' phones all went off.
asserted
phones → begin → tent
A federal circuit court had stayed the execution.
asserted
court → stay → execution
This was my fifth stint as a media witness to an execution, and I'd never seen a stay issued.
asserted
stay → see → execution
We didn't know what that would mean.
asserted
that → know → what
It turned out to mean waiting for nine hours at the prison, barred from leaving the grounds.
asserted
It → turn → grounds
We spent most of it in the boardroom where parole hearings take place.
asserted
hearings → spend → place
Throughout the wait, the victim's family often came up in conversation.
asserted
family → come → conversation
In 1995, Pike, then 18 years old, killed Colleen Slemmer, who was 19.
asserted
who → kill → Slemmer
Slemmer's family lives in Florida and traveled to Tennessee for the execution with money raised through crowdfunding.
asserted
family → live → crowdfunding
It's unclear where they waited while the last-minute legal wrangling played out.
uncertain
wrangling → wait → ?
Sometime around 6 p.m., the prison system's communications director, Dorinda Carter, told us: "It's a go."
asserted
It → tell → us
Tennessee had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay, and it did.
asserted
it → ask → stay
Carter read the ruling aloud to us.
asserted
Carter → read → us
For unknown reasons, it took another hour or so for the security team to usher us into the witness bay, an all-white cinderblock room with black pleather chairs in two rows and a big window overlooking the death chamber.
asserted
team → take → chamber
A loudspeaker pipes sound into the room from the chamber when the microphones are on.
asserted
microphones → pip → chamber
A black curtain hangs in front of the window inside the death chamber.
asserted
curtain → hang → chamber
Department of Correction workers open it once IV lines are inserted into the condemned prisoner.
asserted
lines → open → prisoner
The curtain is there to obscure the workers who place the IVs, in order to shield their identities as required by state law.
asserted
who → obscure → law
That process is enshrined in the "Lethal Injection Execution Protocol," which is the guidebook the Department of Correction writes for itself.
asserted
Department → enshrine → itself
My employer, the Nashville public radio station WPLN, is a party in a lawsuit challenging the state's concealment of the IV insertion.
asserted
employer → challenge → insertion
When executions are botched, it's often due to something going wrong while IVs are placed — or with the subsequent step if IVs fail, placing a central line in a deeper vein through the chest, neck, or groin.
asserted
IVs → botch → chest
A lower court ruled in favor of WPLN and other media plaintiffs in January, but the state appealed the order, and it has been halted while higher courts consider the case.
asserted
courts → rule → case
The American Medical Association officially bars doctors from participating in executions, and many other health professionals also consider assisting an execution to be unethical.
asserted
assisting → bar → execution
Outside of prison staffers and the execution team, only the prisoner's spiritual adviser and attorney are allowed in the room with the prisoner while the IVs are inserted.
asserted
IVs → allow → prisoner
Under normal circumstances, witnesses sit in the bay for 10 or 15 minutes with the curtain closed.
asserted
curtain → sit → minutes
That's how long it tends to take for the IV team to place a line and start running saline, to prepare for the 5 grams of the sedative pentobarbital that will be pumped in to kill the prisoner.
asserted
that → tend → prisoner
Once the lines are set, the execution team enters an adjacent, concealed room.
asserted
team → set → room
The IV lines run through the wall into that hidden chamber, from which the drugs are administered.
asserted
drugs → run → which
But at Pike's execution, we sat in the bay for 45 minutes with the curtain closed and the microphone turned off.
asserted
microphone → sit → minutes
…and 69 more, not listed.
The Aporia
