The phone rang just after midnight, and within minutes, my 15-year-old daughter Lily was being blamed for a crash she insisted she never caused. I knew she was telling the truth because I had checked on her at 11:41 p.m., when she was asleep in her bedroom and the family car was still sitting in…
The execution chamber fell into an extraordinary scene on September 30 when Tennessee officials tried twice to carry out Christa Pike’s lethal injection, only to stop after repeated difficulties establishing an IV. Pike, 50, had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, but the procedure reportedly stretched…
The failed execution of Christa Pike has left a trail of unanswered questions as doctors continue treating her in a Nashville-area hospital. Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old student Colleen Slemmer. After receiving two doses of pentobarbital during the attempted execution, she did not die…
Margot was only five, but she had been thinking about her father’s wedding pictures all morning, proudly asking whether she would stand beside him or his bride, Claire. She wore a pink flower-girl dress and kept practicing her biggest smile, excited to be part of the family celebration. I had no reason to worry at…