The case has put a spotlight on how nurses should be held accountable for medical mistakes.
In March, a Nashville jury convicted RaDonda Vaught, 38, of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired patient for giving a 75-year-old woman a fatal dose of the wrong medication.
Charlene Murphey died in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s intensive care unit on Dec. 27, 2017, after being injected with the wrong drug.
Murphey was supposed to receive a dose of Versed, a sedative, but was instead injected with vecuronium, which left her unable to breathe, prosecutors have said.
Vaught could receive up to eight years in prison and is due in court this morning at 9 am
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Meanwhile, nurses from around the nation are rallying to support her and urge the judge not to give her prison time.
Follow along today for live updates from inside and outside the courtroom.
Vaught speaks
Vaught took to the podium Friday, the first time she had spoken i court during the case.
But before delivering prepared remarks, she spoke directly to the victim’s family.
“Saying I’m sorry doesn’t seem like enough but you deserve to hear that and know that I am very sorry for what happened,” Vaught told Rhonda, Chandra and Michael Murphey, who sat quietly and nodded along.
Chandra Murphey testified earlier that she had never heard Vaught apologize.
Vaught then addressed the wider public, expressing more remorse.
“If my statements, my lack of showing emotion on the outside came across as lack of remorse, that was terribly inaccurate,” Vaught said. She says she has been trained to keep her composure in nursing. “You put your emotions and your shame and your remorse inside and you deal with it later.”
“When Ms. Murphy died, a part of me died with her,” Vaught added.
— Mariah Timms, The Tennessean
In defense of Vaught
Vaught’s friends and former coworkers took the stand Friday, all of whom testified in support of an alternative sentence for Vaught.
The five total defense witnesses spoke to Vaught’s character and devotion to nursing.
“If one of us was sick, she would be our choice,” said Elizabeth Kessinger, a Vanderbilt nurse who worked with Vaught from 2015-2017. The two have remained friends since then.
“She has been resilient and that she has built a farm but she still has a broken heart,” Kessinger said.
Vaught’s supporters in an overflow room in the courthouse and protesters outside the courthouse heard earlier to the defense testimonies with quiet seriousness, in contrast to their expressive dissatisfaction with a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent who testified against V.
— Mariah Timms, Frank Gluck, Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Special agent testimony
After three emotional testimonies from Murphey family members, Special Agent Ramona Smith with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation testified about a different case involving Vaught.
Vaught attempted to purchase a firearm in neighboring Sumner County in August 2020 and lied on a background check that required the purchaser to disclose if the purchaser was facing any indictments. Sumner County prosecutors have brought a perjury case against Vaught, which has not gone to trial yet.
Vaught supporters listening and watching the hearing in a courthouse overflow room and outside at the protest expressed dissatisfaction at Romona Smith’s portrayal of Vaught’s character.
A worker in the overflow room admonished the audience for making negative comments.
Romona Smith said Vaught was ultimately forthcoming, “but that doesn’t circumvent the seriousness of the amount of errors that she did.”
Romona Smith’s critiques emboldened the protesters outside, who waved signs saying “I stand with RaDonda” and “Nurses are not criminals.” The demonstration had grown to more than 450 people.
State prosecutors rested its proof after Romona Smith’s testimony.
— Mariah Timms, Frank Gluck, Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Tearful Testimonies
Murphey’s son, Michael, and two of her daughters-in-law, Rhonda and Chandra, gave tearful testimonies early in the hearing. Once seemingly composed Vaught cried more with each testimony.
“Just the hurt I have watched my family go through is horrible. It’s absolutely horrible,” Rhonda Murphey said at the stand. “And I try to be strong for them but at times it’s hard.”
Both Michael and Chandra said Charlene Murphey wouldn’t have wanted jail time for Vaught, eliciting applause and cheers from protesters outside the courthouse and a group in the courthouse’s overflow room.
Chandra Murphey, however, said she has never heard an apology from Vaught. Vaught’s crying intensified when Chandra Murphey said that.
— Mariah Timms, Frank Gluck, Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Court in session
The hearing started with the entrance of Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Smith.
Those inside the overflow room watched on a screen projector.
Protesters outside the courthouse also tuned in with livestreams on their phones. Loudspeakers played the audio from the hearing. Many protesters were hugged and attentive.
The sentencing hearing began with a discussion of the hundreds of letters, calls, emails and voicemails the court has received in recent weeks in support of Vaught. Smith said it would not have been appropriate for her to review them unless attorneys introduced the materials as evidence.
Nurses and health care professionals requested statements across social media with the hope of influencing Smith’s decision. The attorneys plan to include the materials as an exhibit for Smith’s review and if this case goes to an appeal later.
— Mariah Timms, Frank Gluck and Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Courtroom doors open
Every seat in the courtroom filled minutes after the doors opened. About 50 people are in an overflow room.
Amid an audience of purple shirts, Vaught entered the courtroom wearing a pink shirt.
— Mariah Timms and Frank Gluck, The Tennessean
Inside the courthouse, pre-hearing
With 30 minutes until Vaught’s scheduled hearing, about 40 people are gathered outside the courtroom door on the sixth floor of the Justice AA Birch Building in Nashville.
Many present are familiar faces from the trial, when dozens of nurses and health care professionals sat in the gallery each day.
Jana Wright, a first-year nursing student in Nashville who attended Vaught’s trial, returned for Friday’s sentencing.
“This should never have happened to begin with. We should never be here. And so that’s why I’m here,” Wright said in an interview. “These are matters that belong in a civil courtroom, not a criminal one.”
— Mariah Timms, The Tennessean
Vaught supporters honor Murphey
The crowd of predominantly female protesters who are there for Vaught commenced the demonstration by honoring the woman who died from Vaught’s actions.
Knoxville nurse Tina Vinsant, who helped organize the protest, led to a moment of silence for Murphey.
“We will never forget that this all started with the horrible, unimaginable death of a patient. What happened to Ms. Murphey is every nurse’s worst nightmare,” Vinsant told the crowd.
Murphey’s family declined to comment in advance of sentencing. But in an earlier statement, the family said they resent being cast as the villains in this case by people seeking to use the case for “personal gain.”
“Our family is still traumatized and grieve over Mom’s horrible death,” the statement reads, in part. “We are thankful the District Attorney’s Office obtained justice for us in court. For RaDonda Vaught’s friends and some political candidates to somehow make us and the prosecution into bad guys is humiliating, degrading and retraumatizing us all over again.”
Compassion for patients is why many nurses are at the protest, explained Indiana nurse Amber Rhine.
“That’s why we’re all here,” Rhine said in an interview. “There’s not a heart in this crowd that doesn’t break for that family and that lady.”
— Molly Davis and Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Nurses travel far distances to show support
After a two-hour drive from Huntsville, Alabama, nurse Libby Diaz arrived at the rally first thing, ready to go.
“I feel like the system did not set her up to succeed,” Diaz said about why she made the trek, as she was delivering a case of water to the stack of protester supplies.
Diaz, an ICU nurse of 14 years, felt compelled to show up in Nashville after seeing Vaught’s case unfold and feeling angry and scared in response.
“We’re all human. We all make mistakes,” Diaz said.
At the same time, she acknowledged that Vaught made mistakes that cannot be overlooked.
— Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
Protesters gather ahead of sentencing
Protesters trickled into Public Square Park two hours ahead of the sentencing, donning purple shirts that say “Nurse Strong. I stand with RaDonda.”
As the sun rises, a group of protesters erect a large banner with the words, “We are nurses, not criminals.” About 100 people were already at the demonstration site by 7 am, just outside the municipal courthouse where Vaught’s sentence will occur.
— Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean
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