A Vague, Redacted Execution Protocol in Tennessee Draws Scrutiny
New York Times · LC · trust 35/100
The differences between the current protocol and the previous one have become a focus in Christa Pike’s failed execution.
Listen · 7:51 min Share full article Christa Pike’s lawyers — Randy Spivey, at the podium, and Luke Ihnen, behind Mr. Spivey — hold a news conference on Wednesday in Nashville. Credit... George Walker IV/Associated Press By Emily Cochrane
The manual laying out the procedure was slashed in half, stripped down from 104 pages in a previous version to 44 pages. Details about certain staff and the single drug now at the heart of the protocol were shrouded in secrecy.
And some directions were made vague or vanished altogether, including the requirement that execution teams practice inserting an IV line.
Tennessee has botched two of its three executions this year, mostly recently in the case of Christa Pike last month. Her case in particular has prompted a wave of questions about why the state has struggled to carry out death sentences, while some other states, such as Texas , have not.
The stark differences between the protocol put in place last year and the one before it, which was last updated in 2018, have emerged as a focus of scrutiny in Tennessee.
The granular, grim elements of an execution, especially by lethal injection, have taken on greater interest and importance in the aftermath of Ms. Pike’s botched execution, as more Americans wrestle with the morality and ethics of capital punishment.
Even as polls have shown a decline in support for the death penalty, some leaders continue to champion capital punishment. The Pentagon announced this week that the Army officer convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting would be carried out in public and broadcast via a livestream.
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