I’ve seen nearly 500 executions – but never one like Christa Pike’s

He feels a particular responsibility to remember victims in his coverage and it’s especially disheartening when he writes a story about an execution that doesn’t make big news.

“I feel bad for the victims in the case,” he said. “They are the forgotten folks. They always have been.”

“Today, all the emphasis is on the inmate in Tennessee,” he said. “No tears are being shed, other than the victim’s immediate family, for the victim … and I understand that’s the business we’re in, but it doesn’t mean it’s right.”

Pike’s victim was Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old originally from Florida who loved to roller skate, smile and help others, according to descriptions given by her friends and family. Slemmer was tortured and killed by Pike, then 18, and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, after they met her at a job training camp.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, was present in Tennessee on Wednesday for the execution attempt, telling NBC News afterwards that it “was a mess”.

Texas, where Graczyk lives and works, does not allow observers in the execution chamber when the IV is being inserted, he said.

“So when we get into the chamber, the inmate’s already hooked up.”

In a lethal injection execution, the IV would typically be inserted in the crook of the person’s arm, Graczyk said. But if that didn’t work, sometimes it would go into the top of their hand, their leg, neck or other sites.

During successful executions, Graczyk said inmates become “visibly unconscious after just a few seconds”. They are usually pronounced dead 20 to 40 minutes after the fatal dose is given, he said.