In the year and a half leading up to Christa Pike’s failed execution, warnings about the state’s lethal injection protocol and its weaknesses piled up.
Catherine Sweeney
Catherine Sweeney is WPLN’s health reporter. Before joining the station, she covered health for Oklahoma’s NPR member stations. That was her first job in public radio. Until then, she wrote about state and local government for newspapers in Oklahoma and Colorado. In her free time, she likes to cycle through hobbies, which include crochet, embroidery, baking, cooking and weightlifting.
Christa Pike conscious and able to speak after failed execution
Christa Pike has regained consciousness and is able to speak, according to an update from her legal team on Tuesday afternoon.
What happened during Christa Pike’s failed execution
WPLN’s Catherine Sweeney was in the witness room when Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike on Sept. 30. An attempted execution in May had also failed. Here’s what Sweeney saw and heard.
Pike’s team says they predicted complications with her execution
Christa Pike’s legal team argued this summer that her health conditions could make her execution painful and difficult.
After failed execution, health workers say Tennessee’s rules flout medical ethics
As another death row inmate’s execution arrives, doctors and nurses in Tennessee say they want medical professionals removed from the execution process.
Tennessee unable to carry out the execution by lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike, witnesses say
Tennessee officials were unable to carry out the execution of Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder on Wednesday, media witnesses said, after the lethal injection was halted for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal.
Report: Ascension Saint Thomas incident was due to a “culture of overall nonconformance”
A state investigation details the drug mix-up at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown last month that paralyzed four patients.
Special Master declines intervention in Christa Pike execution
After several days of hearings, the Tennessee Supreme Court’s investigator issued a report saying death row inmate Christa Pike failed to convince him the state’s execution process would violate her constitutional rights.
Tennessee executes Anthony Darrell Hines
Tennessee executed Anthony “Darrell” Hines on Thursday morning. He was convicted of murder for the 1985 killing of Catherine Jean Jenkins.
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