They were intended as encouraging words of farewell.
asserted
They → intend → farewell
Uttered as a kind of salve – if any could exist – to the looming horror ahead.
uncertain
any → utter → horror
‘In October, I’m coming back to visit you,’ said Marcy Wilson, as she sat in a small visiting room in the maximum-security confines of the Debra K Johnson rehabilitation centre, in Nashville, Tennessee.
asserted
she → come → Nashville
Sitting in the room with Marcy, a 60-year-old mother, was Christa Pike, a convicted killer who, four days later, was scheduled to become the first woman to be executed in the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.
asserted
who → sit → years
Marcy, who’d become one of Pike’s closest friends, having forged an unlikely bond when her own troubled daughter was incarcerated with the now 50-year-old death row inmate, was trying to tell her not to give up hope.
asserted
daughter → become → hope
She didn’t truly believe it, of course.
asserted
She → believe → course
Nor, it seems, did Pike.
asserted
Pike → seem → ?
Sentenced to die three decades ago for the chilling, sadistic murder of a fellow college student, she knew her time was up, she was at peace and, says Marcy, ‘ready to go’.
asserted
Marcy → sentence → peace
Although no reprieve, in the conventional sense, came, what followed was more extraordinary than anyone could have imagined.
uncertain
anyone → come → sense
Pike managed to survive two doses of the lethal injection pentobarbital on September 30.
asserted
Pike → manage → September
Today she lies shackled to a bed in a heavily guarded room, in a hospital in Nashville, ‘confused and angry’, according to her lawyers.
uncertain
she → lie → lawyers
Marcy, meanwhile, remains haunted by the prescience of her final words of comfort, as she waits to hear when, or if, she’ll be able to fulfil her promise and visit her friend again.
asserted
she → remain → friend
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Marcy says: ‘I cannot even begin to imagine what our first conversation is going to be like.
asserted
conversation → speak → what
But it’s going to be absolutely wonderful.’
asserted
it → go → ?
Christa Pike was scheduled to become the first woman to be executed in the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years
Since that botched execution, the world has been held in a state of macabre fascination, torn between sympathy and outrage.
asserted
world → schedule → sympathy
Today, experts who wanted to kill her have been replaced by those who want to save her.
asserted
who → want → her
She has a blood clot, her hands are swollen to resemble inflated rubber gloves and are marked by what appear to be severe chemical burns, mostly likely caused by the highly alkaline, bleach-like drug spilling into her flesh instead of straight into her bloodstream as intended.
asserted
what → have → bloodstream
She has, however, begun to eat and to walk.
asserted
She → begin → ?
‘Her physical recovery has been remarkable,’ say her legal team.
asserted
team → say → ?
What the long-term effects may be – physically and psychologically – remain unclear.
uncertain
be → remain → ?
While the spotlight is firmly fixed on the ethical and legal questions around the botched execution, the status of her sentence is also uncertain.
asserted
status → fix → sentence
Of course, many will point out that what Pike has endured pales next to the crime she committed back in January 1995, when she and two accomplices lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into woodland, where she was bludgeoned to death.
asserted
she → point → death
While she was still alive, a pentagram symbol was carved into her chest with a box-cutter.
asserted
symbol → carve → cutter
Pike even kept part of her victim’s skull as a twisted souvenir.
asserted
Pike → keep → souvenir
Marcy, one of the last people to speak to Pike over the phone on the eve of the astonishing debacle 11 days ago, knows many will struggle to understand her friendship and affection for someone capable of such a heinous crime.
asserted
many → speak → crime
But her support transcends all moral argument, and the rights and wrongs of capital punishment.
asserted
support → transcend → punishment
‘She’s a survivor,’ she says tearfully - the irony of those words not lost on her.
asserted
irony → ’ → her
Pike at Knox County Criminal Court in 1996 after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
Christa Pike is indeed a survivor, in uncharted territory.
asserted
Pike → sentence → territory
While there have been other bungled execution attempts (the execution of fellow Tennessee inmate Tony Carruthers was abandoned earlier this year after his executioners failed to find a vein), she is believed to be the only person to have survived lethal injection.
asserted
she → bungle → injection
The past two weeks have been a blur, says Marcy.
asserted
Marcy → say → ?
‘It was bad news one day, good news the next,’ she says.
asserted
she → say → ?
‘The hospital declared her brain dead on Monday night and then she wakes up talking the next morning…
asserted
she → declare → night
‘It makes me wonder.
asserted
me → make → ?
Did they even do a test on her brain or were the authorities just trying to get her off the ventilator?’
asserted
authorities → do → ventilator
Pike’s half-sister Alicia, who flew from her home in Hawaii to be at the execution, is believed to have power of attorney for her younger sibling and would have been the one to give the go-ahead for life support to be switched off.
asserted
support → fly → ahead
At one point, Pike’s legal team were getting ready to make the death announcement, before things changed drastically.
asserted
things → get → announcement
‘Where am I?’ and ‘Who are you?’ said Pike when she woke at around 9.30am on Tuesday.
asserted
she → say → Tuesday
Marcy, so close to Pike that she has three of the murderer’s ‘beautiful’ paintings in her home, has been kept updated.
asserted
she → have → home
She admits she was aghast when she learned, back in 2017, that her troubled daughter Teddy, who had become addicted to prescription drugs, had been transferred to maximum-security Debra K Johnson prison.
asserted
who → admit → prison
She was horrified further when she learned with whom she was sharing a wing.
asserted
she → horrify → wing
…and 76 more, not listed.
The Aporia
