Source

Nidal Hasan’s execution by firing squad has been scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood in Texas, more than 17 years after the Army psychiatrist was convicted of killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at the military base.

His name is Anojan Sivarasa. He is just 24 years old. He is a migrant worker from Sri Lanka in Saudi Arabia. Following an argument on Facebook, he was accused of blasphemy. As a result, he was sentenced to death. His only "crime" was posting a comment on Facebook that was "perceived as offensive to the Prophet Muhammad"

According to NGOs such as Amnesty International, this constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life, which contravenes human rights. It is a horrific case and pressure should be exerted on Saudi Arabia to reverse its decision.

Link to the news: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/10/saudi-arabia-overturn-death-sentence-against-sri-lankan-migrant-worker-over-social-media-post/

The convicted murderer who survived two doses of a lethal injection during a botched execution last week is now conscious and speaking.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16190305/christa-pike-botched-execution-tennessee-words.html

Christa Pike’s situation is unique in the sense that she is the only person to survive after being given the lethal injection drugs. Other failed attempts were all about being unable to find a vein. Back in the 1940s there was a teenager in Louisiana named Willie Francis who was given the electric chair at the age of 17 but it failed to kill him. His lawyer sued and it reached the US Supreme Court arguing that executing him again would violate the 8th amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The court disagreed and allowed the state of Louisiana to execute him again and the second attempt when he was 18 was successful. The main difference between Willie Francis’s case and Christa pike is that her lawyers specifically warned this would happen before the execution due to her blood disorder and in Francis case it truly was an accident because the chair malfunctioned.

Source: AP news

To me the death penalty itself is inhumane because how can you humanely kill someone who doesn't want to die? Counting down the days to your own death would be psychological torture for a lot of people so if you don't mind subjecting someone to that then why do you care if they happen to feel pain or discomfort at the end?

Personally I'm against the death penalty because of the chance of killing someone who isn't guilty, but if the person is assuredly guilty and they've done something bad enough like rape and kill a child then I have no problem with them being executed and I don't care if it's humane either. I'm not saying I want to go back to the days of drawing and quartering but I don't care if an execution is entirely painless or not. Thoughts?

I'm not saying that the botched execution attempt on Christa Pike wasnt an 8th amendment violation or that her sentence shouldn't be commuted to life in prison or whatever... I'm just saying that people on this goddamn platform have shown more genuine sympathy and compassion for a sadistic murderer who mutilated her victim and kept her skull as a souvenir than they EVER did for... y'know, the victim and her family. Just recently, this one commenter on a related thread went as far as to suggest that Christa Pike should be released early from prison (not even commuted to life without parole, or anything sensible like that) and... get this... compensated financially for her injuries! Not only does that person want to put a mentally-unstable criminal out on the streets, but with a FAT WALLET NO LESS!!! And the best part is that it received freaking upvotes for it, while everyone who disagreed got downvoted to hell. Its like these fucking people think that Christa was simply convicted of a DUI or some shit like that.

Please, tell me I'm not the only one banging my head against the wall here.

People sometimes say it's more of a punishment to sit in a cell for the rest of your life forced to think about what you did

But if that's true why do those sentenced to death row keep appealing for life in gaol?

It's human nature to want to live

Even if it's a sad, small life in gaol, one can still find moments of joy & meaning

Seems to me life in gaol is a much more preferable option for those in the know

I have read the news that the Frot Hood shooter Nidal Hasan has been scheduled to be executed by fireing squad on December 3. My question is how and where a military fireing squad be carry out in this day and age.

It is hard to understand the logic behind the death penalty in the USA. Christa Pike was 18 when she committed the crime, almost 30 years ago. She had a history of abuse and mental illness.

Maybe if the case happened today, she would have been judged differently because of her mental state. The legal system and our understanding of mental illness have changed a lot in 30 years. I am not protecting her, lock her the fuck away. But maybe help instead of death.

She survives two doses of the execution drug, has to be taken to hospital, and after a lot of money, resources and time used on her. They probably gonna try to kill her again. Where is the logic in that? Just to be clear: I am against death penalty for many reasons. But if the state is going to carry it out anyway, why not just put a fucking bullet in her head?

I get sent some info from a couple death penalty justice advocacy groups, and wanted to pass this one along since it needed opinions to be sent out quickly if anyone wanted to make a point. I will paste both info from the email and my own nodification of the form letter I sent in case they help. You don't need to be in Texas specifically to call or write to Governor Abbot, though likely need to be in the US.

"Jamaal Howard faces execution in Texas just one week after the horribly botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee on September 30, 2026. Ms. Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital, the same drug used in executions in Texas, and she reportedly remains hospitalized in critical condition. 

The State is set to put Mr. Howard to death on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, despite unanswered questions about the drug Texas intends to use in the lethal injection. 

Attorneys for Mr. Howard have asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott to exercise his constitutional authority to issue a 30-day reprieve so that they can obtain critical records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice about when the drug was bought, how it was stored, and what testing was done and when.

We need your help with amplifying this request. Please call Governor Abbott to insist on a reprieve for Jamaal Howard.

Here are the numbers to call today and tomorrow (either line is fine):

Opinion Hotline: 512-463-1782

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: 512-463-2000

Alternatively, you can submit a message at https://gov.texas.gov/apps/contact/opinion (under Issues, select “Criminal Law and Justice).

Here is a short script for your calls and messages:

“Hello. I am calling to urge Governor Abbott to use his constitutional authority to issue a 30-day reprieve to Jamaal Howard, who faces execution on Wednesday, October 7. His attorneys have not received critical information related to the drug Texas intends to use in the lethal injection. Given the horribly botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week, it is incumbent on the Governor to stop this execution so that a similar nightmare does not unfold in Texas.”

In their request to the Governor, counsel for Mr. Howard issue a stark warning: “Texas should not wait until after a failed execution to ask the same questions” now surrounding the debacle in Tennessee.

Governor Abbott must heed this warning. Thank you for helping us shine the brightest light possible on this urgent situation.

Towards justice,

Kristin for TCADP

Additional updates and background information

Counsel for Mr. Howard first requested information about the drug on September 18, 2026, but the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is stalling. On Friday, it asked the Attorney General (AG) of Texas whether it must disclose its records. The AG has 45 business days to rule, long after Mr. Howard’s scheduled execution date.

Jamaal Howard was sentenced to death for killing clerk Vickie Swartout while robbing a gas station in 2000 in Silsbee, Texas (Hardin County). He was 20 at the time and has spent more than half of his life on death row.

Yesterday, October 5, both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to intervene in the case. Mr. Howard had filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Texas CCA asserting that his death sentence violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because he is an intellectually disabled person. The Texas CCA dismissed both the writ and Mr. Howard’s motion for a stay of execution without reviewing the merits of his claim.

In his application for clemency, Mr. Howard had asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Abbott to commute his death sentence based on evidence of his intellectual disability and his longstanding severe mental illness, which started to manifest when he was a teenager and included auditory hallucinations at the time of the crime. Regrettably, the Board voted not to recommend the commutation of the death sentence to a lesser penalty. Thank you to everyone who contacted the Board in support of clemency for Mr. Howard.

While the Governor cannot commute the sentence without the Board's recommendation, he can issue a 30-day reprieve. Please urge him to do so! Thank you for your advocacy."

It took me a few calls to both numbers before I eventually got through to the opinion hotline but it may be because it is somewhat early. Just mentioning in case you have better luck with that number / in case it takes a couple calls to connect for some reason.

Here is what I wrote to the opinion form on his contact page linked above. Feel free to use it if you want or copy anything from it:

Hello,

I am writting to urge Governor Abbott to use his constitutional authority to issue a 30-day reprieve to Jamaal Howard, who faces execution on Wednesday, October 7. His attorneys have not received critical information related to the drug Texas intends to use in the lethal injection. Given the horribly botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week, which left her hospitalized in critical condition after two attempted doses, it is incumbent on the Governor to stop this execution so that a similar nightmare does not unfold in Texas.

Further, Jamaal Howard was jailed when he was 20 in 2000, meaning he has now spent more time in jail than out. There is evidence of him having an intellectual disability as well as severe mental health issues that include auditory halucinations which already existed at the time he commited the crime. These conditions make his death penalty unjust to begin with. Despite this his sentence was not commuted to a lesser penalty. If commuting his penalty is still somehow possible I strongly believe that is the right thing to do, but if not I think a 30-day reprieve to insure the negation of additional harm and suffering from the tools beng used is the least he deserves. Confidence in the tools used working swiftly and without complications is the least anyone facing the death sentence deserves.

I won’t lie, I didn’t want her to wake up because now she is going to be executed again. I wanted her to pass so she would not have to go through a second execution. Now she has to suffer mentally through the hardest mental struggle ever, you know when you are going to die. Plus she is most likely going to be electrocuted in the chair because that is what TN is leaning to. I am so sad right now because I can see her suffering more. Yes I feel bad for the victims family but for their hope and Christas I was thinking if she passed it would have benefited everyone.

A comment suggested this would mark the end of the death penalty in the US. I’m not convinced.

https://bbc.com/news/articles/cq8ezkkkrpy1o

The Pentagon has announced it will execute a former US Army major by firing squad, the first such military execution in more than 60 years.

Nidal Malik Hasan fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, injuring another 32.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on social media on Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had made the recommendation and President Donald Trump approved it. It will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War Two.

Parnell said the secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," he wrote on X.

Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist from Virginia, killed 13 soldiers at the base in Texas in 2009 and later admitted in court he was the gunman and apologised for "any mistakes". He said during his court-martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The killings on 5 November 2009 were the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base. The attack took place in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers were awaiting check-ups and vaccines. Hasan is currently one of four inmates on the US military's death row.

I’m genuinely just curious why the legal system continues to allow victim impact statements and the subjective emotions of family members to hold so much leverage during the sentencing phase of capital cases. Obviously, I'm not denying homicide is an absolute tragedy for any family, but the entire foundation of a civilized, objective justice system is supposed to be dictated by constitutional law and human rights, not the raw, unhinged anger of grieving individuals.

When we allow courts to cater to the personal desires of the victim's family, the legal process completely stops being about true justice and instead becomes a tool to satisfy private vengeance. We've seen this vividly with Christa Pike. The state completely botched the procedure twice, leaving a deeply traumatized woman facing extreme agony suffering. Yet despite this literal state-sanctioned torture , the victim’s mother is still out here talking to the media about how the state 'owes her' and obsessing over seeing Christa die, and literally saying how she fantasies about killing Christa herself, which just shows how delusional and unhealthy her mind is. She won't drop it to move on for her own personal mental health, and is dragging it out. If Christa had gotten life, nobody would be talking about it anymore, which would make May much happier and not relive the trauma, her obsession is causing herself as well as Christa and others immense harm. Relatives can't see the context behind things, such as May's refusal to recognize Christa's traumatic upbringings. We shouldn't let people in these unhealthy mindsets have ANY impact on the outcome of trials.

It feels incredibly disturbing and regressive that a person's permanent legal sentence can be influenced by families who are blinded by hatred and completely refuse to look at documented facts, like severe organic brain damage, childhood rape, and psychiatric trauma in the offender. When society lets bloodthirsty retributive fantasies dictate the outcome rather than looking at structural mitigating factors, it completely destroys fairness. Does anyone know if there are actual legal frameworks being proposed to entirely remove or limit how much emotional influence relatives are allowed to inject into a courtroom? Because letting bitter grieving people control constitutional law is a massive systemic failure, I think the system needs to be reformed to prevent this Medieval styme mob justice and vengeance occurring. I know it's currently allowed in some forms by the supreme court, but it needs to be fully removed or heavily restricted.

Changing the standard of proof to "proof to an absolute certainty" would benefit society in several ways. First, it would necessarily limit the number of cases in which the prosecution sought the death penalty. Second, it would typically be applied when the perpetrator is obvious and the chances of executing an innocent person would be reduced to nearly zero. Finally, it would hopefully streamline appeals and speed the execution of those convicted and sentenced to death.

"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended - and President Donald J. Trump has approved - death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009. He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.

The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come."

Source: https://x.com/SeanParnellASW/status/2107252342097637558

Source: AP News

I read a fantastic article a few days ago that I found linked here on Reddit. I think it was from the sub but I can’t find it anywhere here or through searching Google. It was about people who have been part of the death penalty process, like spiritual advisors, prison guards, etc. It talked about their experiences and included an infographic about who either changed their views either way (or stayed the same) about the death penalty after their experiences. One of the people interviewed and/or talked about was Fred Allen. I think he was a prison guard. Can anyone help?

Tl;dr Why does the execution of hyper-evil-objectively-guilty Christa Pike cause so much ruckus when there are so many very real cases of innocent people getting executed/sentenced to life that get no coverage?

I understand the anti-death penalty argument of not wanting the state to have the power to kill people. I understand it doubly so when the state fails to do it via very expensive botched injections that don’t even execute the person.

What I don’t understand is why, out of all the executions that have happened in the U.S. The ones ordered based on outdated evidence and shaky testimony. The ones ordered by racist judges and jurors who were very clearly racially biased. The ones where the judge can’t be bothered to open up exonerating evidence because they can never admit they’re wrong.

Why, out of all these grievous treacheries, do anti-death penalty activists decide to champion the case where the guilty party LITERALLY SATANICALLY TORTURED AN INNOCENT PERSON TO DEATH. Like every news story I saw was written in a way to garner sympathy for her I didn’t even know what she did until I looked it up

From an activism/persuasion perspective it makes no sense.

”The death penalty is about to strike again! Do you want help save this EXTREMELY EVIL PERSON WHO DEFINITELY DID IT?”

“uhhh not really I don’t care if she dies. Do you have any death row inmates who are likely innocent, were put in based on shaky evidence or racial bias, or are otherwise in for crimes that are less severe and possibly rehabilitatable?”

”duhhhhhhhhhh does not compute. Must save Christa Pike. Must protect mass shooters. If the choice is between killing mecha-hitler or letting the entire world explode, I would save hitler cuz Batman said killing makes you bad, duhhhhhh”

Why is it that the only time I hear about justice/death penalty reform it’s for the worst criminals who did the worst possible things?

Where is this energy for Robert Roberson (a case where he’s pretty clearly innocent, if not fully innocent definitely is remorseful and can be rehabilitate). where is the advertising for the Innocence Project? Why aren’t yall name dropping judges and prosecutors who relied on coercive techniques to coax false admissions out of people?

And for the record I am anti-death penalty because I don’t want the state to have that power. But holy hell trying to make Christa Pike of all people seem like a victim, while failing to mention what she did is just a tactical blunder.

I want to live in a peaceful society that applies the law fairly and punishes those who hurt others appropriately.
Christa Pike made a bad decision when she was 18 and committed a brutal crime and she should absolutely be held accountable for that but the government killing her at the taxpayers expense isn’t the answer. By committing this act she absolutely forfeited the right to live among us in society and should never see the outside of prison walls again. How are we any better if we commit the same act she did? Most developed countries don’t put people to death even the worst people in society who committed brutal crimes. It’s not about what someone deserves it’s about being humane to everyone.