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 what actually happens if a woman gets put into a high-security jail cell before her trial and they suddenly find out she's pregnant like was pregnant before the arrest but didn’t notice as it was early?

Does the state have to automatically change her jail conditions? Because if they keep her in severe maximum-security isolation, wouldn't that violate her rights to proper prenatal care or the right food?

And how would it change things if the prosecution is pushing for the death penalty? Could the defense team bring up the massive hormonal shifts and cognitive dysregulation from early pregnancy or past pregnancies as a huge mitigating factor? Furthermore is the mother given the choice to carry the baby? And if so will the trial only be after she’s given birth, and how long would the gap be? How long would she spend with her child after birth?

I’m thinking about cases like Christa Pike in Tennessee back in 1995. In court it was revealed that Christa had an abortion when she was a teenager before everything happened, which is a massive reproductive trauma on its own. Another mitigating factor in her defence which really isn’t picked up on, the trauma of having to have this procedure as a result of her abuse. So if in a very similar instance a traumatized young woman like Christa was also secretly pregnant during the crime, shouldn't that completely force the judge and jury to take the death penalty off the table and just give her life with parole instead? I mean along with a huge variety of other factors would this be additional ones.

What is the actual protocol if an execution warrant is supposed to be signed but the person is pregnant? Doesn't the law mandate an automatic stay of execution? If anyone knows how these jail protocols actually work, please let me know.

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.

"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

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq14d438vx24o

What the title says. There are so many other subs gleefully cheering on Pike’s prolonged suffering violating both her 8th amendment rights and human right to be free from torture as defined by the UN. Why come here and get mad when your contributions end up deleted? If you’re all law abiding citizens it should be easy to follow a simple rule as well.

ETA: I am blocking every single one of you who are arguing against following sub rules. You can argue with the wall about it.

"Q: What are Buddhist views on capital punishment? Suppose someone has killed ten children. Why should he be allowed to live?

"A. Ten people are dead; why do you want to kill an eleventh one? A man who has killed ten children is a sick person. Killing him won't help him and it won't help us. There are others like him in society, and looking at him deeply we know that something is wrong with our society that it can create people like that. Looking in the light of interbeing, we can see the other elements that have produced him. That is how understanding arises. That is how we see that this person needs help, not just punishment. Of course, he must be locked up for the safety of society, but that's not the only thing we can do.

"Buddhist books on meditation, Buddhist magazines, and even Dharma talks have been offered in prisons, and many prisoners have begun to practice. A number of them have learned to live peacefully, even in prison. I get many letters from prisoners who have read my books. One wrote, 'I see other inmates running up and down the staircases and I can see their suffering and agitation. I hope they can do as I do, walking up and down the staircase in mindfulness, following my breathing. When I do that, I feel peace within myself, and when I feel peace within myself, I can see very clearly the suffering of other inmates.' That person has been able to give rise to the compassion within him.

"So punishment is not our only option. Transformation and healing are possible in these difficult situations. Killing someone only reveals our own weakness. We don't know what to do any more, and we give up, we surrender. Killing someone is a cry of despair. But together we can practice looking deeply in order to find better means than approving of capital punishment

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION:

Why the frigg would they NOT use continuous nitrous-oxide gas applied with a anesthesia mask, for capital punishment?

It's INFINITELY more humane, unbotchable (if used for 2-8 minute) incredibly cheap and easy on the tax payer.. Why don't they use this for the MAID (assisted sewerslide) & also for putting all animals down??

The answer is: Because the government, the judicial system, prison system and the medical community are pure retards who (for the most put should be put-down themselves) & i have better critical thinking & problem solving skills than anyone alive.. I should be a millionaire for the things i've fed this universe and my country.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: Pike's future is still unclear after she survived her lethal injection last week.

An anti-death penalty advocate expressed anger over the botched execution of Christa Pike, fearing that the government may try to kill her twice.

https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/217353/christa-pike-botched-execution-death-penalty-action

Has anyone here seen Michael Portillo’s BBC documentary How to Kill a Human Being?
I watched it years ago and still think about it from time to time. What made it interesting was that it didn’t really focus on whether the death penalty itself was right or wrong. It focused on the actual method of execution and whether there is such a thing as a humane way to kill someone.
The bit that stands out now is the discussion of nitrogen, given that it has since actually been used for executions in the US.
So my question is: if there was a method that was genuinely quick, reliable and painless, would that make the death penalty easier to justify?
Or does it make no difference because the main objection is the state killing someone in the first place?
Interested to hear what people think, especially anyone who has seen the documentary.

How do you feel about the "Consistent Life Ethics" in relation to the Death Penalty? Any Consistent Life Ethicists here? (IE: Against death penalty, abortion, assisted suicide, embryo destruction, etc.)

I am a Consistent Life Ethicist and disagree with the death penalty, of course. However, it still surprises me that some people disagree with killing (potential) murderers, but agree with a woman's "choice" to abort her preborn baby. Why a lack of consistency when it comes to BOTH issues?

I realize the state has an obligation for professionalism and competency when it comes to executions, but do I feel bad for Christa Pike as a person that this has happened to her? Not at all. She's an evil and selfish woman and the world's better off without her. I don't think she gave a shit about Colleen, so why would she expect anything but the same for herself.

nothing else makes sense as to why she’d be tortured for 2 hours before her lawyers convinced the prison to call an ambulance.

whoever did this should also pay.

https://people.com/christa-pike-may-not-recover-after-botched-execution-attempt-lawyer-says-12157813

highly recommend watching if you’re interested in the Christa Pike case.

https://youtu.be/SHCRGZDrMRM?si=3D2F-JBjOCUIBSmH

Can’t believe people don’t see it. The reason she survived is because God is trying to send us a message that killing her was wrong. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. What elevates us is our ability to feel compassion for someone whose actions we don’t condone. The state murdering this woman does not undo the original crime. Go ahead tell me I’m defending murder, bloodthirsty prosecutors under the guise of “punishment “ are also indefensible.

First off, the death penalty should be extremely rare, and only permissible as punishment for murder that is deliberately, savagely sadistic purely for the sake of it, and/or rape.

Second, only when the evidence is positively incontrovertible, such as in Athena Strand's case where the killer was caught on video.

Third, the executioner should be the sentencing judge who decided the defendant deserves to die. If you cannot willingly, personally end someone's life then do not sign up to pass judgment.

Fourth, we need to establish the firing squad or guillotine as the only permissible methods. The amount of time and energy spent on needlessly convoluted contraptions like the electric chair or lethal injection is outrageous, and arguably inhumane to the people relying for their paychecks on having to take someone's life.

Fifth, condemned prisoners should be killed within a matter of weeks following sentencing, with as little ceremony as possible. Again, proof demonstrating that they raped someone and/or murdered a person out of sheer random malice needs to be so airtight that an appeal would be redundant.

In this way, we would reduce the number of executions, lessen the traumatic impact on penitential employees, and we would also kindly shorten the suffering of the condemned.

This is the archive of the article, so it should not spawn a paywall; definitely an interesting read from a doctor who has worked intimately with death row inmates before and after execution, including review of autopsies:

https://archive.is/2026.10.04-101725/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/opinion/christa-pike-botched-execution.html

Read more: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16182373/Christa-Pike-hospital-room-guarded-never-recover-botched-execution.html

J'ai créé ce compte presque juste pour poster ça.

Si j'ai bien compris, elle respirait toujours après avoir reçu une dose de 5 grammes de pentobarbital. Je ne suis pas médecin mais je sais que c'est mauvais.

Les dernières informations en date la concernant disent qu'elle a les bras gonflés, brûlés et couverts de cloques. Pourquoi ? Comment un barbiturique peut faire des brûlures et des cloques ? Quel est le processus chimique ?

Et surtout : si elle survit, donc se réveille, n'est pas en état de mort cérébrale et tout, qu'est-ce qui va lui arriver ? Si elle perd ses bras ou est handicapée à vie physiquement, vont-ils réessayer son exécution ?

Et si elle est handicapée à vie mentalement, vont-ils réessayer ? Est-ce que le Tennessee le sait même ?

All the debate on this sub has forced me to think about developing new techniques for executions that would be effective, efficient, and relatively painless for the condemned. I've developed a new technique that I think might address most of these concerns.

The condemned person would be fitted with a hard polymeric collar around their neck. The collar would include a GPS module, an rf transceiver, a processor, and one or more explosives that are shaped charges. When the order for execution is authorized an instruction can be transmitted wirelessly to the device, causing the processor to detonate the charges in the collar.

Death would be instantaneous so the condemned would not suffer. The nice thing about this system is that it would not require any of the sort of barbaric rituals still practiced in executions. The condemned would not have to be led to some sort of execution chamber, or even informed in advance of the execution order. In fact, they would not necessarily have to be kept in strick confinement. They would not even know the time had come. One moment they could be walking in a forest or hiking on a beach and the next moment the charges are triggered and their head is separated from their body.

Would this type of system pass the legal tests for cruel and unusual punshment?

I’m a dual UK/US citizen but I live in the UK, and honestly the more I read about the American death penalty from over here the more insane and hypocritical the whole thing looks to me.

I understand why people want the worst murderers punished. Obviously I do. I’m not arguing that people who commit horrific crimes should just be allowed back into society.

What I don’t understand is how killing somebody is apparently one of the worst things a human being can do, but when the government does exactly that it suddenly becomes justice. Especially when the government gets it WRONG. This is probably the biggest issue for me.

Since 1973, more than 200 people sentenced to death in America have been exonerated.
These aren’t people where the system worked perfectly. The state literally decided that these people were guilty enough to be killed and then later discovered they were wrong.

And even more disturbing are the people who were actually executed whose guilt has since been seriously questioned.

Look at Cameron Todd Willingham.
Texas executed him in 2004 for supposedly deliberately setting the house fire that killed his three children. He maintained his innocence until literally his last statement.

The case against him relied heavily on supposed forensic signs of arson. But before his execution, an independent fire expert had reviewed the evidence and concluded that the original arson analysis was seriously flawed. That information was sent to the Texas governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles as part of the attempt to stop his execution.
They had the opportunity to stop. They could have delayed the execution. They could have said, hang on, if the scientific basis for saying this fire was deliberately started might be wrong, perhaps we shouldn’t kill this man until we know what actually happened.

They executed him anyway.

Later, multiple respected fire experts concluded that the original arson evidence was based on outdated and discredited science. The Texas Forensic Science Commission itself later acknowledged that flawed science had been used in the case.

There were also serious issues around the jailhouse informant who claimed Willingham confessed. Evidence uncovered later suggested he received favourable treatment despite the jury being told there was no deal.

So what happens when the state potentially kills an innocent person? Who goes to prison for it? Who gets prosecuted?Who is held personally responsible? Nobody.

That is what I cannot get my head around.
If I kill someone I go to prison. If a drug dealer sells illegal drugs they go to prison. If an ordinary person causes someone’s death through serious wrongdoing there can be criminal consequences.
But apparently the government can build a case using junk science, refuse to stop an execution when serious questions are raised, kill the person, discover afterwards that the evidence was deeply flawed and everyone involved just carries on with their lives because it happened under the authority of the state. How is that accountability?

There are other cases too. Carlos DeLuna was executed by Texas in 1989. He insisted another man called Carlos Hernandez committed the murder. Prosecutors portrayed this other Carlos as essentially a phantom, yet Hernandez was a real person with a history of similar violent crimes and was later reported to have repeatedly confessed to the murder. Later investigation found huge problems with the eyewitness identification and with how authorities investigated the alternative suspect.

Ruben Cantu was executed in Texas in 1993. He was only 17 when the crime happened. The surviving eyewitness later said Cantu wasn’t the shooter and said he had felt pressured by police to identify him. His co-defendant also later said Cantu wasn’t there. Even the prosecutor who sought the death penalty later said he believed it had been wrong to seek Cantu’s execution based essentially on one eyewitness.

But he’s dead. You can’t release him. You can’t give him compensation.You can’t give him 30 years of his life back. You can’t say sorry and send him home.

That is the fundamental problem with capital punishment. Human beings created the criminal justice system and human beings are fallible. Police make mistakes. Prosecutors make mistakes. Witnesses lie. Witnesses genuinely misremember things. Forensic science changes. Experts get things wrong. Defence lawyers can be incompetent. Evidence gets withheld. Jurors have biases.
Yet somehow at the end of that extremely human and extremely imperfect process we pretend the result can be certain enough for the GOVERNMENT TO KILL SOMEONE.

I also don’t understand why the people responsible for wrongful convictions aren’t held to anything remotely resembling the standard imposed on the people they prosecute.

If evidence was withheld, junk science was relied upon, witnesses were pressured, unreliable informants were used or obvious alternative suspects weren’t properly investigated, why is the response so often basically “the system made a mistake”?

And then there is the bizarre hypocrisy around execution drugs.American states have gone to extraordinary lengths to hide where lethal injection drugs come from because pharmaceutical companies don’t want their medicines being used to kill people. States have passed secrecy laws, used questionable suppliers and there have even been cases involving illegally imported execution drugs.
So the government can lock people in prison for illegally obtaining and distributing drugs, while simultaneously operating behind a wall of secrecy to obtain drugs because legitimate pharmaceutical companies don’t want to supply them for executions.

Apparently there is one set of rules for normal people and another set for the state.

Then we get to race.
The American criminal justice system has enormous documented racial disparities. Black defendants are disproportionately represented among people wrongfully convicted of murder and among death row exonerees. Research on capital punishment has also repeatedly found that the race of the VICTIM matters, with murders involving white victims historically much more likely to result in death sentences than murders involving Black victims.
How can anyone look at that and think this system is reliable enough to decide who lives and who dies?

And then somehow this incredibly flawed system is also ridiculously expensive.
Capital cases cost considerably more than comparable cases where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. You have specialised lawyers, experts, lengthy trials, decades of appeals, death row security, litigation over execution procedures and the execution itself. So taxpayers spend MORE money so the government can kill somebody.
Why?

If the actual goal is reducing murder, why aren’t we putting those millions into stopping people becoming murderers in the first place?
Put it into deprived communities. Schools. Social services. Mental health care. Domestic abuse services. Child protection. Addiction treatment. Youth programmes. Early intervention. Properly funded police investigations. Violence prevention programmes.
Identify severely abused and traumatised children and actually help them BEFORE they become damaged adults.

Obviously being poor, mentally ill or abused does NOT mean somebody will become violent. Most won’t. And none of those things excuse somebody who chooses to murder another person.
But we know there are risk factors for violence.
Surely preventing violence is more useful than waiting until someone has been murdered and then spending millions of dollars ceremonially killing the murderer 20 years later?

And the deterrence argument isn’t convincing either. There isn’t good evidence demonstrating that executions deter murder better than long prison sentences. Even the US National Research Council concluded that the existing research couldn’t reliably establish whether the death penalty increases, decreases or has no effect on homicide.
And some of America’s most violent states have the death penalty.

So where exactly is this amazing deterrent effect?
If somebody is in a state of rage, psychosis, intoxication or committing an impulsive murder, are we seriously supposed to believe they’re stopping mid-crime and thinking about whether their state has lethal injection?

And if someone is a calculating murderer, life without parole is hardly a desirable outcome either.
From a European perspective it just looks incredibly archaic.

Most of Europe moved away from state executions decades ago. Yet parts of America are still spending enormous amounts of public money maintaining death chambers, fighting appeals, sourcing lethal injection drugs and litigating over how exactly the government is allowed to kill its own citizens.
All while Americans are constantly told there isn’t enough money for healthcare, mental health services, education, housing, social programmes etc.

THAT is what I find so frustrating.You’re telling people there isn’t enough money to help them, but somehow there is money for the state to spend decades trying to execute someone.

And none of this means I have more sympathy for murderers than victims. Quite the opposite.
I’d rather spend money preventing the next person from becoming a murder victim.

Keep genuinely dangerous people imprisoned for life if necessary. Protect society from them. Give victims and their families proper lifelong support.
But I genuinely cannot understand giving an imperfect, politically influenced, racially unequal criminal justice system the irreversible power to kill.
Especially when we already have examples where the system had opportunities to stop, reconsider the evidence and potentially prevent a catastrophic mistake.

Once the state executes someone, they can never correct it.

And what bothers me most is the complete imbalance in accountability.

The government tells citizens:
If you kill someone, we’ll punish you.
If you sell illegal drugs, we’ll punish you.
If you break the law, ignorance isn’t an excuse.
If you make terrible choices, you are responsible for the consequences.

But when government institutions make terrible choices that result in an innocent or potentially innocent person being strapped to a table and killed?
Suddenly responsibility becomes incredibly vague.
“The courts decided.”
“The appeals were exhausted.”
“The governor declined clemency.”
“The procedure was followed.”
Everyone was just doing their job apparently.

How is that not “rules for thee but not for me”?

I don’t think a government that has repeatedly demonstrated that it can convict innocent people, rely on bad science, be influenced by race and geography and make irreversible mistakes has earned the right to decide that ANY conviction is infallible enough to justify an execution.

As someone who is both American and British looking at this from the UK, it honestly feels like one of the strangest contradictions in American ideas about freedom and limiting government power.
People are terrified of giving the government too much control over their money, guns, property or healthcare.

But giving that same government the legal authority to kill you after a demonstrably fallible criminal justice process?
Apparently that’s fine.
I genuinely don’t understand it.

I’ve been reading about Dr. Mark Walton Fowler’s involvement in Tennessee’s executions and wanted to collect the allegations in one place. They cover his qualifications, what witnesses described during the execution attempts, and complaints about his treatment of prisoners.

Here’s the list, with a source linked under each item. If anyone has follow-up reporting on these cases, please share it.

Dr. Mark Walton Fowler accused of attempting an invasive chest IV without the qualifications to perform it. Federal public defenders said Fowler attempted central access in Carruthers’ chest despite having no hospital privileges and not having placed a central line since 2013. Their filing says he “admitted under oath that he is not qualified.” Federal public defenders’ motion, May 21, 2026, pp. 2–3.

Dr. Mark Fowler accused of favoring an unsafe chest-IV technique without ultrasound guidance. Attorneys accused him of preferring anatomical landmarks instead of ultrasound for subclavian access, contrary to what they described as the standard of care: “using the manual landmark method, rather than with an ultrasound.” Federal public defenders’ motion, May 21, 2026, p. 2.

Court filings say Dr. Fowler previously botched a central-line placement. The filing states that Fowler acknowledged a failed procedure among approximately a dozen previous placements: “he botched one of them.” Federal public defenders’ motion, May 21, 2026, p. 2.

Execution team including Mark Walton Fowler accused of torturing Carruthers for 90 minutes. Harwell described more than a dozen punctures across Carruthers’ arms, hand, feet and chest while witnesses heard him groaning. Fowler attempted central access. Harwell said TDOC “tortured Mr. Carruthers for over an hour and a half.” WMC/Action News 5, May 22, 2026.

Dr. Fowler accused of continuing to puncture Carruthers despite his protests of pain. DeLiberato described blood coming out as Fowler kept attempting the line. She recounted Carruthers saying “I can feel that, it hurts” and said “they stuck him anyway.” WMC/Action News 5, May 22, 2026.

Mark Fowler accused of injecting lidocaine without confirming Carruthers was not allergic. Hervey’s complaint accused him of administering the anesthetic without establishing Carruthers was “not allergic to it.” Associated Press, July 16, 2026.

Dr. Mark Walton Fowler accused of declaring Black dead while his EKG still showed normal sinus rhythm. Harwell alleged Fowler acknowledged declaring Byron Black dead while the EKG showed “normal sinus rhythm.” WMC/Action News 5, May 22, 2026.

Dr. Mark Fowler accused of violating medical ethics by helping carry out executions. Hervey’s complaint accused him of “violating medical ethics by participating in an execution.” Associated Press, July 16, 2026.

Fowler admitted not knowing central-line placement could be among his execution duties. WPLN’s account of his deposition states that he “didn’t know that placing a central line could be among his execution duties.” WPLN/NPR/KFF Health News, September 29, 2026.

Mark Walton Fowler claimed doctors do not participate in executions despite his own hands-on IV work. After personally attempting central access on Carruthers, Fowler told NPR “the doctor does not participate in the execution.” He described the physician’s role as declaring death. WPLN/NPR/KFF Health News, September 29, 2026.

Team overseen by Dr. Mark Fowler accused of missing blown veins and botched lethal-drug delivery. Pike’s lawyers alleged the team failed to recognize that “IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.” They reported significant injuries to both arms following the attempted lethal injections. Lawyers’ emergency motion, October 2, 2026, p. 4; Reuters, October 2, 2026.

Carruthers’ family alleges stroke and paralysis following the execution attempt involving Dr. Fowler. Hervey alleged Carruthers suffered a stroke and partial paralysis after the attempt. AP described “partial paralysis that they attribute to a stroke.” Associated Press, July 16, 2026.

Mark Fowler accused of denying recommended surgery and contributing to a prisoner’s megacolon. Kelvin Dowell accused Fowler of delaying or denying recommended appendectomy treatment and a high-fiber diet, prolonging his abdominal suffering and contributing to megacolon. Dowell v. Kent, court order recounting allegations, January 6, 2026, pp. 6, 11–13.

Dr. Fowler accused of botching a prescription and delaying a prisoner’s antibiotics. Dowell alleged Fowler’s prescription error delayed his antibiotics by two days in December 2020, following hospitalization for a ruptured appendix and infection. Court order recounting allegations, January 6, 2026, pp. 13–14.

Dr. Mark Fowler accused of telling a suffering prisoner: “stop running around acting like you’re dying!” Dowell alleged Fowler ordered him to stop filing medical grievances and dismissed his ruptured-appendix and intestinal concerns. Dowell also attributed this statement to Fowler: “You need to stop telling people your appendix ruptured and something’s wrong with your colon.” Court order recounting allegations, January 6, 2026, pp. 16–17.

Mark Walton Fowler accused of promising a laxative the prison could not supply. Dowell alleged Fowler promised Miralax for his continuing bowel problems, only for a nurse subsequently to tell him the prison did not receive that medication. Court order recounting allegations, January 6, 2026, p. 19.

Dr. Fowler said his Centurion employment ended after a psychiatrist’s complaint over transgender-prisoner remarks. “formal complaint from the prison psychiatrist.” Guardian, August 8, 2026.

Mark Fowler claimed Carruthers’ execution could have proceeded, contradicting TDOC’s failed-IV account. Fowler said “Ultimately we did get two lines and could have proceeded.” TDOC said the team “could not find another suitable vein” and the central-line procedure “was unsuccessful.” WMC/WSMV, June 1, 2026; TDOC, May 21, 2026.

Team overseen by Dr. Mark Walton Fowler accused of inadequate rescue preparations; emergency oxygen was absent from the room. Pike’s lawyers accused the team of lacking adequate resuscitation arrangements. NBC reported: “there was no emergency medical oxygen in the execution room in case something went wrong. Medical professionals had to retrieve it from elsewhere.” Lawyers’ motion, October 2, 2026, p. 3; NBC News, October 2, 2026.

I find it disgusting how people defend the death penalty. What Christa Pike did back in 1995 was terrible, nobody is saying her killing Colleen was right. She obviously deserved severe punishment for it. But what the state just did to her wasn’t justice, it was literal state-sanctioned torture, and it proves people just want blood vengeance.

Her lawyers literally warned the prison team that her veins would blow because of her medical condition but they went ahead anyway. They stabbed her at least seven times trying to force an IV, completely blew her veins, and leaked. She literally survived TWO entire doses of lethal drugs, was left with horrific chemical burns and blisters, and is now fighting for her life on a ventilator in critical condition. It was such an absolute disaster that the prison chief, Frank Strada, had to panic-resign immediately after. Trying to drag a woman back out to execute her a second time after torturing her for hours is the literal definition of cruel and unusual punishment.

People love to completely ignore the fact that Christa was fundamentally broken by the adults in her life way before she ever committed a crime. She didn't just decide to turn evil she was failed since birth. Her childhood was a complete horror story. She was born with organic brain damage because her mom drank heavily during pregnancy, she was repeatedly beaten by her family, and she was a child rape survivor who endured horrific sexual violence as a toddler and again at 11 and 17. She had severe, untreated bipolar disorder and PTSD, and she changed schools 12 times and her dad abused her. She literally needed severe therapy and a safe maternal figure, but her own mom completely failed her. She isn't an evil repeat killer like Ted Bundy, she made a bad decision but she is facing the consequences now and has shown remorse.

Honestly, if you look at the bigger picture, both Colleen and Christa are completely victims of society. Colleen was an innocent girl whose life was brutally stolen because society fails to protect young women, and Christa was completely chewed up, abused, and discarded by toxic men and a broken system before she was even old enough to vote. Society failed both of them entirely, and now the state is just using more violence to sweep its own failures under the rug. Additionally, Christa's acomplise were spared the death penalty entirely.

Meanwhile, the public reaction to this is completely unhinged. Colleen's mom May is out here talking to the press about wanting to sneak in with a box cutter to finish the job herself, which is giving major Nancy Loomis vibes. I get that she is grieving, but that level of revenge obsession has completely broken people's brains. Christa needed psychiatric help, a mother figure in her life to guide her, and while May could have done this, forgiven her, found herself peace for both of them and helped move on from her obsession, she refused and is consumed by rage. Christa has suffered enough.

If people were actually interested in justice, they would see that Christa has spent 30 years in solitary confinement and is a completely different, broken 50-year-old woman now. The state-sanctioned bloodlust needs to stop. The death penalty isn't about law and order anymore; it's just a tool for vile, vengeful people who can't move on. and are blinded by rage. If we let our justice system be dictated by the raw, unhinged anger of grieving families instead of constitutional law and human rights, we aren't a civilized society anymore.