Female murderer Discharged From Hospital After Surviving two Execution Attempts is back in prison

What a story! What a weird case!

She committed murder at age 18 in 1995 and she has been in prison since 1996. She was sentenced to death in 1996. What took so long!

Christa Pike Discharged From Hospital After Surviving Execution Attempt - WSJ

Why did the execution fail in Tennessee

Where amateurs conducting the execution? 

"The execution of Christa Pike failed because correctional staff improperly placed IV lines or caused her veins to rupture ("blown veins"), preventing the lethal drugs from properly entering her bloodstream.

Key Factors in the Failed Execution

Medical experts and attorneys noted several major failures during the lethal injection process:

• Blown Veins and Soft Tissue Seepage: Pike has a known blood disorder (thrombocytosis) and small, fragile veins, making her a "difficult stick". Because her veins ruptured quickly during the procedure, the vast majority of the two doses of pentobarbital leaked into the soft tissue of her arms instead of flowing through her central bloodstream to her brain.

• Potential Drug Degradation: Attorneys have also alleged that Tennessee's supply of pentobarbital may have been deteriorated or degraded, diminishing its effectiveness.

• Protocol and Execution Failures: Correctional staff poked Pike with needles at least seven times in the death chamber. Her defense team accused the Tennessee Department of Correction of reckless disregard for basic medical practices and failing to realize she had a blown vein during the process." (Google Search)

Fort Hood mass shooter and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan to die by US Army firing squad 15 years after the crime

What the heck took so long! This is a horrible case of justice delayed is justice denied!

Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Malik Hasan to die by US Army firing squad "Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army officer and psychiatrist who killed 13 people and injured 32 others during a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, will be executed by a U.S. Army firing squad, the Pentagon announced Monday."

Christa Pike's attorneys say client is awake and speaking after failed execution

I still have not seen any report how this was possible that she survived the execution! What went wrong?

Christa Pike's attorneys say client is awake and speaking after failed execution | Just The News "The development comes after Pike was on a ventilator last week after she survived two rounds of injections of the lethal drug pentobarbital."

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halts execution of woman who survived two lethal injections

What a bizarre story! Justice delayed is justice denied!

Why did it take 31 years from committing the crime to carrying out the capital punishment in this case?

Caveat: I am not familiar with the details of this story.

"Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the execution of Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of a 1995 murder in which the victim had a pentagram carved into her body. 

Pike's attorneys said in a court filing Wednesday night that their client is still alive and snoring, after she received two lethal doses of drug. ..."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halts execution of woman who survived lethal injection | Just The News "“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement."

Man released on bail after 41 years on death row in Utah

Good news!

This is a reminder that capital punishment should not be executed right after the verdict, but perhaps 3-5 years later.

"A man who spent 41 years on death row in the US after being convicted of killing a woman has been released on bail after prosecutors said newly analysed DNA evidence did not link him to the crime.

Douglas Stewart Carter, who is now 71, was jailed for the killing of Eva Olesen in Utah in 1985.

He was sentenced to death but always maintained his innocence, stating that a signed confession was coerced. ..."

Man released on bail after 41 years on death row in Utah

Douglas Stewart Carter, who is now 71, was jailed for the killing of Eva Olesen in Utah in 1985

Lebanon Breaks With the Region on the Death Penalty

Good news!

"... On August 11, the Lebanese parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, replacing it with a life sentence and “aggravated hard labor.” Once the law is signed by the president and published in The Official Gazette, it goes into effect; however, acquiring such a signature is just a formality in the Lebanese parliamentary system.

This is a historic decision for the Arab world and the Middle East. ... 

Djibouti, a member of the Arab League, abolished the death penalty in 1995.

Turkey did the same in 2004.

This makes Lebanon the second Middle Eastern country and the second Arab League member to take the step. ..."

Lebanon Breaks With the Region on the Death Penalty "The historic vote follows decades of advocacy and removes an irreversible punishment from a flawed justice system plagued by political interference and lengthy trials."

The tree of life? 😊

Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death for crimes against humanity

Update of 8/31/2026: Today, I learnt that apparently also his brother Maher and his cousin Atef Najib were also sentenced to death in absentia.

Good news, I suppose! Was the son of the long-time dictator of Syria Hafez al-Assad (in office from 1971-2000) a monster with a medical doctor's degree?

Putin the Terrible and his ilk!

"... Assad fled Damascus in December 2024 and has been living in the Moscow area since.

He was tried in absentia. ...

Atef Najib, a security official under Assad, was also sentenced to death. ..."

Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death for crimes against humanity | The Jerusalem Post "Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was convicted of premeditated murder of multiple people, including children, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity."

Criminals in arms

6 Iranian men About to be Executed Sing a Message to the World About the Deadly Regime

If confirmed, this is amazing news! How was this leaked?

FrontPage magazine did a very lousy job to present this story! E.g. the original news article was not mentioned, most of the salient details not mentioned!

Caveat: I did not listen to the song (song appears to be in Farsi language).

"Smuggled video from inside an infamous Iranian prison captured the moment six dissidents broke into song to defy the Islamic regime one last time before they were hanged.

The six men, all executed for their alleged actions against the regime, were seen standing in a courtyard at the notorious Ghezel Hesar prison as they made their final stand with a song of resistance, The Sunday Times reported.

“Your rival stands before you now, hardened in the flame — I am the faith, I am revolt, with belief I take my stand — I’ve sworn an oath upon my blood, the tyrant’s throne shall shatter,” the men calmly sung. ...

Ghobadi, 33, was confirmed to be executed on March 31 after he was allegedly tortured by the regime, which accused him of armed rebellion against the state, according to Amnesty International. 

Baniamerian, 33, who was accused of the same crime, was featured in another smuggled video in a direct address to then Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“To the Supreme Leader who wants to execute us to create fear in society. I want to remind you that I and those like me rose from the blood of freedom-loving youth,” he said before being executed on April 4.  

Baniamerian and his fellow death row inmates also penned a manifesto calling on others to follow their path of resistance against the Islamic regime in order to free Iran in the future. 

“So if fate decrees that you execute us hundreds of thousands of times again, in the hope of the victory of a democratic republic and the freedom and flourishing of this captive homeland, we will stand firm in our rebellious position,” their note read. 

All six men were accused of being members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the country’s main opposition movement. ..."

Iranians About to be Executed Sing a Message to the World About the Deadly Regime | Frontpage Mag "A final song of resistance against the terrorist regime."

Defiant Iranian protesters sing in harrowing video before being hanged: ‘The tyrant’s throne shall shatter’

Smuggled video reveals defiant song of hanged Iran protesters  (behind paywall) "As Tehran executes dissidents at ‘unprecedented’ speed, footage and manifestos obtained by The Sunday Times show the final resistance of the condemned"

"These 6 men, just before they were executed by the Islamic Regime, sing a final song of Resistance against the terrorist regime."

The six political prisoners were identified as (from left) Vahid Baniamerian, Babak Alipour, Abolhassan Montazer, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi.

The Trump administration said it would allow executions by firing squad and restore the use of lethal injections in federal death-penalty cases

 As much as I hate capital punishment, but this is good news!

Apparently, the administration of the senile, demented and pathological liar 46th President tried to indirectly abolish the death penalty.

"The Justice Department said many of the limits the Biden administration put on carrying out federal death sentences would be removed. Until recently, firing squads were almost unheard of in modern executions. President Trump, in his first term, reactivated the federal death penalty after a 17-year hiatus and put 13 inmates to death in its final months. Since his return to office, the DOJ is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants."

Wall Street Journal What's news

Saudi Arabia carried out 347 executions in 2025, an annual record

Bad news! If this is not fake news, then it is very concerning!

Unfortunately, neither BBC nor Google provide any more corroboration for this story. Only Bing provided some (see e.g. second article below)

"Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.

At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row. ...

The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences. ...

Five were women. ...

But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences ..."

"The toll marks the second-straight year Saudi Arabia has broken its own record since rights groups first began documenting the number of executions in the 1990s.

It executed 338 people in 2024.

A statement by the interior ministry carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said three individuals were executed in the Mecca region for murder convictions.

Since the start of 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed 232 people in drug-related cases, constituting the majority of the 340 executions carried out so far, according to AFP’s tally, based on ministry and SPA announcements.

Analysts largely link the surge in executions to the kingdom’s ongoing “war on drugs” launched in 2023, with many of those first arrested only now being executed, following legal proceedings and convictions.

Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.

The Arab world’s largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria’s largest export under Bashar al-Assad -- according to the United Nations. ..."

Saudi Arabia: Rights groups condemn new record number of executions in 2025

Saudi sets new death penalty record after executing 340 in 2025: AFP tally

English for trippers: Gross at the cross

Not a crossover nor a crossing. Keep your fingers crossed that such brutal forms of capital punishment will never be performed again!

How many people died at the cross including Jesus? According to Google: "It's impossible to know the exact number, but hundreds of thousands, possibly over two million, were crucified throughout history"

Barbarians were not only at the gate!

Merry Christmas 2025!

Martian prisons could be built from ice on Mars surface

Food for thought! Pardon my sleight of hand and my facetiousness! 

Instead of capital punishment? No way to escape!

"... More than 5 million cubic kilometers of frozen water exists on or near Mars’s surface, with far more predicted to lie beneath. If the Red Planet’s ice proves obtainable, future astronauts could see themselves living in a world out of Disney’s Frozen, scientists reported here today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Through various modeling exercises, the team showed the material could be molded into well-insulated, durable structures that effectively shield earthlings from the Sun’s harmful rays. ..."

Martian cities could be built from ice | Science | AAAS "Astronauts could theoretically harness frozen water on the Red Planet to construct habitats and research stations, new analysis suggests"

RSF alarmed about fate of 14 other, detained journalists after the execution of Turki al-Jasser in Saudi Arabia

How bad is the situation for journalists in Saudi Arabia?

The Wikipedia entry on this journalist is extremely thin and says little about his journalistic career.

Was he a terrorism sponsor or a journalist or both?

Of course, the RSF wants to compare the death of this journalist with the killing of the  celebrity journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"... Before his murder, Turki al-Jasser was a jailed journalist. He had been imprisoned for running the news blog Al-Mashhad Al-Saudi (“The Saudi Scene”), where he regularly addressed social issues such as women’s rights and the Palestinian cause. Several of his fellow journalists remain behind bars — often mistreated or denied fair trials — for their reporting. Some have been imprisoned since 2012. Others were arrested during the wave of detentions that preceded the rise to power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017. Their fate now lies in the hands of an increasingly repressive regime. ..."

"Turki al-Jasser was the founder of the news blog Al-Mashhad Al-Saudi and also contributed to the now-closed newspaper Al-Taqrir. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to death on charges of terrorism and high treason, based on writings he was accused of authoring. He was executed on 14 June 2025 after 7 years imprisonment. ..."

"The Ministry of Interior announced today [7/14/2025] the execution of Turki bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Jasser, a Saudi national, after he was proven to have committed several terrorist crimes, including high treason, communicating with foreign parties to harm the Kingdom's security, and receiving sums of money to finance terrorist activities aimed at undermining internal security, national unity, and the country's stability. ..."

Portraits from Saudi Arabia: RSF alarmed about fate of detained journalists after execution of Turki al-Jasser | RSF "The execution of journalist Turki al-Jasser by the Saudi regime has raised serious concerns about the fate of other media professionals wrongly detained in Saudi Arabia for doing their job. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has profiled their cases and calls for their immediate release."

UNESCO Director-General condemns the execution of journalist Turki al-Jasser in Saudi Arabia "The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has condemned the execution of journalist Turki al-Jasser in Saudi Arabia, on 14 June."

Treason, espionage, and financing terrorism: A citizen was executed as a discretionary punishment in Riyadh. (this news outlet publishes in Arabic) "Treason, espionage, and financing terrorism: A citizen was executed as a discretionary punishment in Riyadh."

Turki al-Jasser

China Executed Four Canadians for Drug Crimes with Palki Sharma

Serious stuff! These four individuals were dual-citizens. Unfortunately, the video does not say what kind of crimes they exactly committed!

From Dreams to Death Row: The Fate of Indians in the Gulf with Palki Sharma

Serious stuff!

Death by firing squad set to resume in the US – but no matter the method, all means of execution come with a troubling history. Really!

At least the criminal in this case was given a choice of the method of death! There is no perfect solution!

The criminal could spending the rest of his/her life behind bars perhaps even including medical treatment? Why e.g. should the taxpayer pay for this cushy life? And if it is not a life sentence, how many years should a murderer remain in prison?

Murder and other severe crimes come with a troubling history too! What about the dead victims and their lost lives?

"... As someone who has studied execution methods in the U.S., I see the resumption of death by firing squad as part of a morbid search for “better” execution methods. It comes amid concern over botched lethal injection attempts and a scarcity of the drugs needed to carry out such executions. ..."

Death by firing squad set to resume in the US – but no matter the method, all means of execution come with a troubling history "A death row inmate in South Carolina chose firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair."

Idaho introduces bill to make death by firing squad main form of execution, relegating lethal injection to second option

Very recommendable! These are not small potatoes!

There have been reports in the past that the chemicals needed for lethal injections were not made available for political reasons and about botched lethal injections.

But who are the individual who pull the trigger?

Yemen Death Sentence: India’s Efforts to Save nurse Nimisha Priya with Palki Sharma

What a story! Not often are nurses accused of murdering a business partner!

46th President’s Corrupt Pardon of 37 of a total of 40 federal Death Row Inmates

The senile, demented, and corrupt and life long pathological and serial liar is trying very hard to go down in history as among the five worst, but three worst US Presidents!

What a disaster this president has been!

"... [46th President has] cynically commuted the sentences of almost all remaining federal death row inmates — 37 of the 40 — so that none of those defendants will be executed. ..."

Biden’s Corrupt Pardon of Death Row Inmates | National Review