Tennessee centres its own pain after two lethal injections fail

After the only woman on Tennessee's death row was still alive following two lethal injections, the state says it needs to work on its relationship with the process.

After the only woman on Tennessee's death row survived two lethal injections, the state enters couples counselling with its execution protocol. It names every stakeholder except the person it tried to kill.

Her lawyer put it in a court motion. The lone woman on Tennessee's death row was still alive on Wednesday night after two lethal injections. By morning, the state had booked couples counselling. It was not for her. It was for the state and its execution protocol.

As a scholar of carceral intimacy, I was invited to observe the first session. Tennessee sat at one end of the sofa. The protocol, a thick binder of drug instructions, sat at the other. Neither would make eye contact.

The counsellor opened with a fourteen-step accountability framework. Step one asked the state to name the harm. Tennessee named "a disappointing outcome for all stakeholders." Step two asked who those stakeholders were. The state listed itself, the binder and its drug supplier. It did not list the woman it had just tried twice to kill. The counsellor wrote this down very gently.

"Tennessee keeps saying the protocol let it down," the counsellor told me. "I've asked it to try 'I' statements. So far it has only managed 'I would like to try again.'"

I am a progressive. I believe everyone deserves a third chance. I just never imagined the state would apply that to the needle.