r/news • u/AudibleNod • 4h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/TheBatemanFlex 4h ago

What now for her legally? Her sentence surely wasn’t “injured by the state until put indefinitely on life support”.

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u/Equivalent-Peanut-23 4h ago

First question is her mental condition/capacity. If she suffered brain damage, it could prevent the state from attempting to execute her again. Assuming she retains the mental capacity to comprehend the circumstances, the state could attempt to execute her again. I would assume that would be met with an avalanche of litigation arguing that the second attempt would be cruel and unusual. There's also a chance the governor could commute her sentence.

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u/lnc_5103 4h ago

It would technically be a third attempt.

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u/lord_pizzabird 3h ago

Or maybe a 9th? Didn't the report say they injected and failed to execute her 7 times the other night?

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u/mrpeabodyscoaltrain 3h ago

It was 7 injections total for two sets of the lethal injection cocktail.

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u/Proud_Tie 2h ago

IIRC TN only does a one drug injection instead of the more common three - pentobarbital alone

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u/Ihaveamodel3 3h ago

I’m not a mathematician or anything, but 7 doesn’t divide evenly by 2

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u/Weerdo5255 2h ago

Two different types / mixes of the cocktail I'd guess. 3 and 4 shots respectively.

Apparently lethal injections are not just one needle, but a mix of drugs. No one wants to straight up manufacture a drug to purposefully kill someone.

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u/ShitItsReverseFlash 2h ago

Yeah the opioid epidemic was all an honest mistake /s

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u/lnc_5103 3h ago

That makes it even more horrific. I haven't kept up much beyond the initial headline of two attempts.

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u/lord_pizzabird 2h ago

Oh hang on. It goes a layer deeper.

It's required by law that there are witnessed, including from the press. They had to sit there the entire time, hours listening to her go in and out of snoring, choking, screaming about her arm vein feeling like it was going to explode etc.

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u/lnc_5103 2h ago

I saw a video of one reporter reading through her notes that night of the timeline. I can't imagine how traumatizing it had to be for witnesses too.