Entries tagged with “W. Mark Ward”

Aug 12, 2026

Tennessee Court Holds Multi-Day Hearing on Christa Pike’s Lethal Injection Challenge

UPDATE: The three-day evi­den­tiary hear­ing con­clud­ed on August 13. Testimony cen­tered on three con­test­ed issues: whether Ms. Pike’s throm­bo­cy­to­sis cre­ates an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al risk of IV com­pli­ca­tions and pul­monary ede­ma dur­ing lethal injec­tion; whether trans­fer­ring her to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and plac­ing her under close obser­va­tion before exe­cu­tion would retrau­ma­tize her giv­en her doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry of child­hood sex­u­al abuse and PTSD;…