I am sure many of you were as horrified as I was last week at the news of the botched execution of Christa Pike. The 50-year-old had been due to be the first woman put to death in the state of Tennessee in 206 years for the brutal murder of Knoxville classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 after a court overturned a late stay of execution.
During an attempt to execute Pike at a Nashville maximum-security prison on Wednesday evening, the execution team reportedly went through at least seven needles while trying to find a vein in Pike’s arms to administer the lethal injection. Experts say her survival was unprecedented, and as she lay in critical condition in hospital, her legal team has since dubbed the attempted execution “chemical torture”.
Helen Roberts interviewed Pike 20 years ago, when she was eleven years into her sentence. Before her execution date, she wrote in The Independent about the young and vulnerable woman she met. Following the horrific events that then unfolded, she looks at what could happen now and how on earth could anyone consider attempting to execute her for a second time at a later date?
Another horrifying case to emerge from the States is that of the Cornell Seven - perpetrators of an alleged gang rape at Cornell University in 2024 who were punished by writing essays – rather than arrested - and reportedly invited their friends to join in the assault of a female student as she lay unconscious. While no charges have been brought and all allegations have been denied, it is still the latest case to trigger an outcry over how accusations of violence against women and girls are treated.
As memes are shared around educating our sons, author and psychologist Amelia Fairney, discusses what it means to raise boys today. And Alex Hannaford talks to insiders who have long tried to expose ‘frat house’ culture, and asks: has the time come to ban them?
It’s a story that is happening across the pond, but with many parents waving their sons and daughters off to university for the first time, it’s important to tackle these difficult subjects, and not shy away from the conversations that they spark at home.
However, as the nights darken and the leaves begin to fall, I know we are also at the time of the year when we are turning to comfort and warmth. For lots of us, this will mean settling down for a new season of autumn TV.
Many will be tuning in to watch War, starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller, dubbed a “tasty” divorce drama, it landed on Friday on Sky/ HBO and has received gushing reviews. Author Jane Green writes that it has everything: pretty people, dastardly lawyers and a healthy amount of subterfuge and brutal underhand behaviour. But, she says, as a woman who has been divorced not just once, but twice, this is one programme she won’t be watching, however good it may be. Read her piece, Confessions of a walkaway wife, and why divorce doesn’t have to mean war here.
One TV show few will be able to avoid is The Traitors, which is a favourite of mine and pretty much everyone else I know. Stephen Armstrong talks to the makers about why they decided to depart from its original format, and looks at what happens behind the scenes that viewers will never see at home. Meanwhile, Kate Rosseinsky talks to psychologists about the one personality trait which all the winners of the show have, celebrities and civilians. And it’s not what you think.
I’m just happy for something to see me through Sober October – which is so much easier to do when there is so much good telly to watch at home. Saying that, Radhika Sanghani explains why, in her experience, giving up drinking helped with her social life, while senior health and fitness writer, Harry Bullmore, reveals the surprising things that happened to him when he gave up drinking last October, and why it led to him giving up all year.
Until next weekend!
Victoria Harper
Executive Editor
-in-Whos-Afraid-of-Virginia-Woolf--sohoplace--Credit-Johan-Persson_02033.jpeg?quality=75&width=640&trim=478%2C703%2C500%2C765&auto=webp "Gillian Anderson’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is must-see theatre")
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