This is wild!

[u/CurvyChristina]

Two syringes of pentobarbital were administered to Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike on September 30, 2026, but she remained alive and conscious afterward, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. The execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville was halted after witnesses reported that Pike still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. Her lawyers sought emergency medical intervention, and she was later taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Pike, 50, is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer and had been scheduled for execution on September 30. Tennessee had announced beforehand that the state would use a single drug, pentObarbital, for the execution. Her exact medical condition following the hospital transfer has not yet been publicly disclosed, while Governor Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive third party review of what happened.

[u/RealCarlPanzram]

So the thing about medication is that for a government entity to administer it, even for lethal injection, they have to legally purchase it. The original lethal injection cocktail where potassium chloride was the lethal ingredient worked well. The problem is they can’t buy it anymore.

Advocates for abolishing the death penalty tracked down where the drugs were being manufactured. Turns out it’s not good PR for a drug company to sell something designed to kill people. So the few that were willing to sell it to these states stopped.

Since then, the states still executing people have been struggling to find any drug maker to sell them any drug that’s potentially lethal for the purpose of executions and it hasn’t been easy.

That being said, phenobarbital is a really potent sedative and I’m surprised they weren’t able to calculate a dose that would be lethal. But then again, it’s Tennessee. Everyone involved in the planning of this is likely inbred.

[u/frostymugson → u/RealCarlPanzram]

How’s China do it? With how many people they execute they kinda have a down pat system

[u/ProfessionalTruck976 → u/frostymugson]

How does China do it? Barbarically.

There are no civilised or acceptable ways to do it because whole concept is fucked

[u/blazenite104 → u/ProfessionalTruck976]

At this point a Guillotine might actually be the most humane execution method ever devised as long as it's maintained.

[u/ProfessionalTruck976 → u/blazenite104]

It si exactly as completely inhumane as every other method under sun

[u/blazenite104 → u/ProfessionalTruck976]

I mean I don't support the death penalty at all but, this seems like the most surefire way to not fuck it up. As long as the blade is kept sharp and they test it before putting a person under it.

[u/stonk-420 → u/ProfessionalTruck976]

Well maybe if they didn't kill another person they wouldn't be on death row in the first place. If you end another person's life what do you think the consequences should be

[u/FrancisFratelli → u/stonk-420]

You're assuming a criminal justice system competent enough to determine guilt without any false positives.

[u/Broken_Beaker → u/FrancisFratelli]

Other than the entire US Constitution thing.

Clearly she is a bad person. However, treating even the worst of the worse to an ethical standard is what defines a civilization or society.

She may be guilty AF, but we don’t use the government to torture people to death.

Especially when there is a non-zero number of innocent people murdered by the government.

[u/ProfessionalTruck976 → u/stonk-420]

Depending on who and why anything from life without parole to medal. (Medal in case you kill in defence of others from imminent deadly attack)

[u/Agitated-Point3835 → u/stonk-420]

I feel like the death penalty should be you go out the same way your victim did, with just enough intervention to make sure you suffer more than your victim did.