What is the significance of the “rock” in the attempted execution of Christina Pike ?
This is actually a multi part question as the witness reports of the scene of the execution make me feel like I have forgotten how to read English. Like the witnesses are reporting on a half remembered fever dream as opposed to the reports of people specifically chosen because of their ability to report what they have witnessed.
- The witnesses report that a rock, or something like a rock, was placed on a table through a panel in the execution chamber after the lethal drug was administered. Then the rock was like taken away. Then it was put back. But then it was taken away. What the hell is the rock? Why the rock? WHAT IS THE ROCK AND WHAT DOES IT SIGNIFY? It is driving me nuts that people are reporting witnessing something like that, which is strange, and no one is even trying to explain it. I have looked and there is no record of what the rock means. They put a panel on the execution chamber I assume specifically for the rock and does it have historical significance?
To be extremely clear, I assume it is some signal that they are waiting for the drugs to take effect or it means the person is deceased or something. Like “stone dead” but why a rock? I would like to have an actual cited source as to why the state of Tennessee performs this bizarre ritual which no one seems to understand.
Were the witnesses specifically chosen by Tennessee because they were actually very stupid and bad at reporting things? There were actual reporters in the witness area who are reporting things in a way I can only describe as having the same mental clarity and acuity of a very small child. They were reporting Christina as “snoring”, like that is the report. That she was loudly snoring. Again no one is attempting to provide context to what the hell that means. Were there no doctors as witnesses? To be a witness to an execution in Tennessee do you have to have a head injury and not know what like, extreme respiratory distress is? No they reported her “snoring” like oh, she just got tuckered out by the lethal injection not working and is taking a little snooze.
What is the point in having witnesses at all if they reported things as if they were children telling about how their parents told them at the hospital that their grandma was alright, she’s just going to sleep for a long time and she’s very tired so they needed to leave the hospital so the doctors could tuck her in. Like what is even the point?