As written, the Tennessee Constitution guarantees the right to bail for people arrested and jailed for almost any alleged crime. But in November, voters will be asked if they want to change that by expanding the list of alleged offenses for which a person can be kept in jail while they await trial.
At some point on Tuesday, Christa Pike will be moved from the women's prison in Nashville to the nearby Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where executioners are waiting to receive her. On Wednesday morning, unless a judge or Gov. Bill Lee orders them otherwise, they will carry out the death sentence she received more than 30 years ago.
Over the course of three days in August, Christa Pike watched as lawyers and expert witnesses in a Knoxville courtroom meticulously analyzed the abuse she suffered as a child and the different methods the state could use to kill her.
Nashville police made two arrests last week that highlight the way generative artificial intelligence technology is supercharging the sexual exploitation of children online.
This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.
Tennessee's lethal injection protocol adopted a year and a half ago appears to include reduced training in IV placement. That's the part of the process prison staff failed to complete in May before aborting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Filings from ongoing litigation over the protocol show concerns about the executioners' training and qualifications aren't new.
It has been just over a month since executioners in Nashville abandoned the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was strapped to a gurney for more than an hour as they tried and failed to place a secondary IV line.
Attorneys for Tony Carruthers urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to pause the state's death penalty days after executioners failed to place IV lines for Carruthers' lethal injection.
Around 11 a.m. CDT Thursday in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, a medical doctor stepped in and attempted to place a central IV line in Tony Carruthers' chest.
Tennessee prison officials are refusing to confirm that they will not be using expired lethal injection drugs to execute Tony Carruthers on Thursday morning.
