Phoenix New Times: “It was just after 2 a.m. on a pitch-black Friday morning when Bernadette Greene-Placentia’s life changed. The Democratic candidate for Congressional District 8 strolled across a parking lot to repair a damaged campaign sign. It was a routine she’d followed all summer. This time, she only made it a few yards.”
“An attacker smashed her over the head. She blacked out. She woke up to find a strange man on top of her.”
“President Trump is again raising the prospect of federal intervention in Chicago, saying the city is suffering an ‘unprecedented’ crime wave that’s ‘getting worse by the day,'” Axios reports.
“Trump’s renewed focus on Chicago comes as the city is on pace to record even fewer homicides than last year, when killings fell to their lowest level in 60 years.”
“A man running to become a police chief in a small town in Louisiana has been accused of raping two girls,” NewsNation reports.
“Although he was arrested on charges of rape, Chris Paul remains on the ballot, running unopposed, as the other candidate in the race announced that he was stepping down.”
“The head of Tennessee’s prison system is resigning after the failed execution of Christa Pike, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday,” NBC News reports.
“Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator in a Nashville hospital as of Thursday evening, a day after surviving a botched execution attempt, her lawyers said in a court filing,” the New York Times reports.
Reuters: Tennessee governor calls failed Christa Pike execution “a tragedy.”
The Economist: “Call it executive dysfunction. Since 2021 American states have executed 148 convicted criminals. Of that number, according to data gathered from news reports by the Death Penalty Information Centre, an advocacy charity, 11 were botched, with many of the condemned left writhing in pain on gurneys for 30 minutes or more. Of these, four did not succeed in bringing about death at all.”
“As the wait dragged on Wednesday night for word about Christa Pike’s fate, concern mounted that an execution in Tennessee had gone terribly wrong yet again,” the New York Times reports.
“The memories were fresh of a botched attempt just four months earlier, as a doctor spent 90 minutes poking another condemned inmate with needles and slicing open his chest in search of a vein before the state called off the execution. Ms. Pike’s lawyers had cautioned that she had health issues that could create similar complications.”
“Still, the state pushed ahead, administering two doses of the drug pentobarbital, and Ms. Pike did not die. She remains in critical condition, her prognosis unclear.”
NPR: Failed “torturous” execution attempt on Christa Pike reignites death penalty debate.
“Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s ex-lover was taken into custody in a Cheesecake Factory parking lot after he got caught bringing a large knife to a Phoenix gun shop. Prosecutors claim Matthew Ammel, 39, discussed building a rifle and threatened to come after Sinema and ‘take her down,'” the Arizona Republic reports.
“President Trump expressed disbelief about Christa Pike’s botched execution, wondering how it could happen given that the lethal drugs should be ‘easy’ to administer,” the New York Post reports.
“Pike survived the two rounds of lethal injection, becoming the first person in history to survive that death penalty method.”
Said Trump: “How does that happen? Should be easy to do. It shouldn’t be very difficult.”
“A judge in the nation’s capital agreed on Thursday to permanently dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a move that could prevent federal prosecutors from reviving the case under political pressure from President Donald Trump,” the Associated Press reports.
“Convicted murderer Christa Pike continued to breathe for nearly an hour after she was administered two rounds of lethal injection drugs Wednesday night, according to court filings by her legal team, prompting the state to halt her execution and begin emergency medical care,” the Washington Post reports.
”Representatives of the media who were in the death chamber in a Nashville prison described a harrowing scene, as Pike continued to talk, breathe and snore long after the proceeding was underway.”
MS NOW: Tennessee unable to complete Christa Pike’s execution after hours of uncertainty.
“Death row inmate Christa Pike got a last-minute reprieve Wednesday when a federal appeals court stopped her execution about an hour before it was set to take place in Nashville,” Axios reports.
“A Tennessee woman scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a brutal killing she helped carry out as an 18-year-old would become the first woman put to death by the state in more than 200 years,” the Washington Post reports.
“The criticism has been that I let a child predator out after one day. Well guess what? They served 60 days.”
— Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), speaking at an event.
“The theft by a criminal hacking group of reams of sensitive personal data involving potentially tens of thousands of former and current FBI employees is emerging as one of the worst breaches of sensitive government information, leaving the bureau rushing to protect its personnel as a deadline looms,” the New York Times reports.
“Nearly a week after the group, known as ShinyHunters, revealed it had pilfered intimate details about bureau personnel from the agency’s jobs portal and threatened to leak them online, FBI investigators are still piecing together how the breach took place and the total damage.”
“The hack appears to have swept up home addresses, Social Security numbers, secretive job assignments and much more.”
“Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s ex-bodyguard turned lover allegedly trashed her Arizona home while she was out of town — causing more than $200,000 in damage as he tossed dozens of valuable paintings into her pool,” the New York Post reports.
“Federal authorities have opened a probe into Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime lawyer and accountant who are now his estate executors,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The two men have previously said they didn’t know Epstein was engaged in sex trafficking and denied being complicit in or knowingly facilitating any crimes.”
“The rapidly accelerating use of drones among Latin American drug cartels will significantly complicate the Trump administration’s campaign to halt the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States and eliminate the criminal networks that produce and traffic them,” the Washington Post reports.
“Of chief concern, these people said, is the continued exploitation of individuals with recent battlefield experience in the Russia-Ukraine war, a conflict that has featured near-continuous evolution in drone tactics and technology.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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