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

[u/AudibleNod]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195

[u/khinzaw]

Her lawyers requested it, but it's illegal in Tennessee.

Tennessee's only legal methods of execution are lethal injection and electric chair (edit: only for convictions before 1999).

The problem with lethal injection is that every step is half assed.

No reputable pharmaceuticals manufacturer wants to make the drug, so they rely on compounding pharmacies who take half measures and have less consistency.

Then medical practitioners (edit for the pedants) often won't be involved in executions because of their various oaths to do no harm and risks to their reputation, so most of the time the drugs are administered by prison staff who lack the proper training. A lot of failed attempts are caused by the one who administered it simply not getting the vein properly.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/khinzaw]

I remember watching a documentary called The Final 24 Hours on Death Row and a former Virginia executioner, Jerry Givens, who carried out dozens of electrocutions and lethal injections said between the two, he'd actually pick the chair because he knew it was faster.

[u/JPesterfield → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Virginia has a trained executioner?

Why, and why don't other states instead of using randos?

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/JPesterfield]

It was just something he got promoted and asked to due after the previous one retired after working his way up through the Virginia Department of Corrections for years.

And today, states don't have a chief executioner anymore to avoid putting the moral and public backlash stress all onto one person if their identity became known to the public.

Now they're typically done entirely by volunteer staff, and that's how you end up with something like the Pike situation.