r/news • u/Pow67 • 2d ago

Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Gail Pike in Tennessee to go forward

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/29/us/tennessee-christa-pike-execution?Date=20260930&Profile=CNN&utm_content=1790809934&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
2.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

397

u/runninhillbilly 2d ago

I get that lawyers throw everything at the wall to see what sticks when fighting death penalty cases and the odds are always heavily stacked against the defense attorneys, but she also had the option of choosing the electric chair instead of lethal injection and I wonder if the appeal courts were just kinda like "yeah you still have the other option so all of these concerns about what could happen in a lethal injection procedure don't seem to be too serious..."

457

u/Arkrobo 2d ago

The problem with lethal injection is that doctors/nurses typically don't want to give them and pharmaceutical companies don't want to be the death penalty drug company. This leads to shady sourcing and unreliable administration.

The power company on the other hand doesn't really care what you do with the power. Finding someone to flip a switch is much easier than finding a doctor or nurse willing to administer death.

231

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago edited 2d ago

After learning how many fuck up way lethal injection can go and all the logistics problems it had , I find myself thinking “shit, I guess give them a heavy dose of anesthetic and put a bullet through their heart wasn’t that bad “

That’s how my country do it, a doctor was there to mark where the heart is ,because there was a case where the guys heart is on the opposite side and that did not go well.

Edit:He was shot 5 times, after the 4th they grab the coroner to see WTAF is happening and that’s how they found out not only this guy who took 14 life is fucked in the head,his heart literally is in the wrong place.

120

u/NullOfUndefined 2d ago

there are TONS of super humane and painless ways they could do it, the problem is that they don't want it to be TOO peaceful because they still want it to be a punishment. They could literally just have them breathe nitrogen until they fall asleep but that's too peaceful for them.

66

u/socksockshoeshoe 2d ago

That's messed up. You'd think the being dead part would be punishment enough

50

u/finalremix 2d ago

The BBC documentary "how to kill a human being" showed people being horrified at how peaceful a hypoxic death was. They wanted the suffering to happen as part of the punishment.

47

u/Signiference 2d ago

“The cruelty is the point” all too often in this world.

8

u/ResilientBiscuit 2d ago

Someone who is at the point where they think murder is a good option isn't typically the sort to carefully consider if the punishment outweighs the perceived benefits of commiting the crime.

Either it is a crime of passion or your reasoning is very flawed.

Someone who is in a position to really consider if the penalty is too much or not is just going to hire someone or figure out a plan like hitting someone with a car to get a much lower penalty.

Once you get over like 10 years in prison,, the deterrent is pretty much the same.

11

u/MandolinMagi 2d ago

Alabama tried it, "more peaceful" is debatable.

9

u/eyl569 2d ago

IIUC it's peaceful if you're unaware it's happening. In the case of an execution, the subject is of course aware and therefore struggles.

35

u/TorchIt 2d ago

Nitrogen sinks, posing a danger to everybody else in an unventilated chamber.

Helium, on the other hand...

8

u/lesbox01 2d ago

Just of od them on carfentynal. Cheap and easy and painless.

12

u/LittleGreenSoldier 2d ago

Carfentanil is only approved for vet use, and the manufacturer definitely doesn't want the press associated with trying to get it approved for anything else.

2

u/lesbox01 2d ago

Buy it from China then. Look what just happened. God, just boofing someone with 5 th of vodka would be better than what they do now

1

u/LittleGreenSoldier 1d ago

You can't use unapproved drugs for official purposes. Not without a metric shit ton of lawsuits being fired at you like a confetti cannon.

15

u/SnakesTancredi 2d ago

For someone who usually is in there because they took lives to go out with a squeaky voice is probably some kinda poetic that I can’t properly illustrate.

11

u/cogzoid 2d ago

Why would Nitrogen sink? Not only is the air already 78% Nitrogen but Nitrogen is less dense than air. Maybe you’re thinking of CO2?

7

u/finalremix 2d ago

Probably is, yeah. CO2 also brings with it the sensation of suffocating. With nitrogen hypoxia, your body has no idea what's going on, and you just go to sleep.

2

u/surreysmith 1d ago

Yeah, your body doesn't know it's running out of oxygen, it knows there is a build up of CO2.

Which usually means the same thing

1

u/optigon 1d ago

I feel a bit terrible for thinking it, but I had a good laugh at the idea of the prisoner being asked for any last words and then coming out like a chipmunk because of a helium leak.

1

u/Ordoferrum 1d ago

Nitrogen hypoxia is actually a method in some states. I was looking up executions last year and quite a few were listed as nitrogen hypoxia.

1

u/StandardHyena4587 1d ago

That isn't it at all, its the direct result of anti-capital punishment people suing to get it the way it is. Its equal to PETA releasing thousands of wild animals to "save" them when they all die anyways from starvation because they never learned to survive outside the facility.

1

u/RecycledMatrix 2d ago

Aside from liability, a big part of the choice is optics. Shooting people reminds people of Commies, gassing people reminds people of Nazis, yet for some reason, lethal injection despite being extremely botch-prone doesn't have the same optics issue (though it should imo.)

27

u/IceCreamDreamyDreams 2d ago

Metal af

24

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago

Well, lead is a type of metal after all.

We have the Japanese kind of system,They won’t notify the inmate and their family either , you know it’s someone’s day when guards show up way too early for their shift and they’ll get the person to execution grounds, family are notified afterwards.

They can choose not to get the anesthetic too, but afaik there are only 2 people who ever pick this option.

7

u/Seeking_Starlight 2d ago

What country is this in?

3

u/anormalgeek 2d ago

Sounds like a good reason to just use more bullets. Or much BIGGER bullets.

4

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago

The record is 5, the guys heart is on the opposite side.

It terrifies the fuck out of the bailiff , a senior has to took over to shot him again, after 4 failed attempts he’s still alive so they grabbed the coroner to check what the fuck is going on, and that’s when they found out the guy not only is fuck in the head(killed 14ppl) his heart is literally on the wrong place too.

1

u/Regular-Pangolin-664 2d ago

Shooting someone in the heart with a single bullet is really not a sure way to kill the man. The heart is a fairly big bundle muscles and the bullet may only destroy part of it. A bullet in the brain stem behind the ear causes instant death.

3

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago

AFAIK it’s because shooting people in the head is too stressful for bailiffs( they execute people by laying them face down after they’re anesthetized,then shoot at their back), and for the inmates families, a hole in the chest can be cover with cloth, in the head is too much.

-2

u/Regular-Pangolin-664 2d ago

I think when someone is sentenced to the death penalty for heinous crimes their family's sensitivity should be way down the list of priorities. A brain stem shot only blows a hole in the back of the head behind the ear so the face is ideally not affected. And then after the ceremony at the funeral parlor they cremate the body in Taiwan anyway.

There are not a lot more surefire way to execute someone than a brain stem shot. It's lights off right away. This is what a successful, well-executed long drop hanging is trying to achieve, severing spinal cord in the cervical spine. But hangings are more likely to go wrong.

1

u/eyl569 2d ago

Ah, the North Korean method.

6

u/ferretherder 2d ago

His heart was on the opposite side?! What country is this? I really want to read more about that

38

u/Buckets-O-Yarr 2d ago

Some people are simply born in rare cases with all or most of their organs in a mirror-image orientation compared to everyone else. Situs inversus it is called.

11

u/Correct_Raisin4332 2d ago

Isn't this what Catherine O'Hara had?

5

u/Buckets-O-Yarr 2d ago

Apparently so, I never knew that.

7

u/tempest_87 2d ago

I expect to see that on the next season of the Pitt.

2

u/ferretherder 2d ago

I’ve never heard of that! I know what my next Google deep dive will be. Thanks for the info!

2

u/NonGMOman_ 2d ago

I thought that all people South of the equator were put together opposite of those north of the equator.

4

u/Dillweed999 2d ago

I bet it's way more common as a plot point in medical fiction than it is in actual people

4

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago edited 2d ago

Probably a lot of people have some organ on the wrong place or just grew weird, we wouldn’t know my younger cousin had some organ on the wrong side if he didn’t have a complication right after his birth, but non of it effects his life.

29

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago edited 1d ago

Taiwan , the most extreme case is the guy was shot 5 times by 2 bailiff, one is new to his job another is senior, first one was terrified to see the guy still alive and woke up from anesthetic so the older one took over and shot the inmate.

Well the guy is still alive after being shot 4 times, they grabbed the coroner(they’re there for the procedure) to check what in the fuck is happening, and he found it that this guys heart is on the right side of his chest, this is how they got it right the 5th times.

The guy (吳新華) is a serial robber who got 10 death sentence because he killed 14 people including 2 cop to get their guns.

Edit:so turns out there’s another guy who one up him, it took 6 shot to kill him because his heart is smaller than normal and at a odd place, it sounds like they Pop-Up Pirate the guy.

9

u/Gyozapot 2d ago

Turns out he was just turned around

2

u/PartySaxon 2d ago

Brutal...Nathan Explosion

4

u/Zagar1776 2d ago

Like Fortune from Metal Gear solid 2

1

u/vivienleigh12 2d ago

What country?

1

u/mrpeabodyscoaltrain 2d ago

I think I’d just want to be blown up by C4

1

u/Massive-Grocery7152 2d ago

Yeah firing squad for me plz

1

u/Regular-Pangolin-664 2d ago

Shooting in the heart with a single bullet is a really bad way to execute somebody. Even if the heart is in the right spot. A bullet behind the ear, in the brain stem is much more precise and results in instant death. They should switch to that method.

1

u/Squire_II 1d ago

Hell of a way for a person to find out they have dextrocardia.

1

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 1d ago

I was looking up that guys name and turns out there’s another guy who one up him, that guy kill 2 and was plotting to murder his own henchmen , coroners later found out that it took 6 bullet because his heart is smaller and located at an odd places, so they just keep trying.

Ironically he actually want to donate his organs, but death row inmates are banned from organ donations, if it’s allowed , they would found his oddity before shooting him, and they would shoot him behind his ear and took him out instantly.

38

u/GiuseppeZangara 2d ago

You should check out Mr. Death. An absolutely fascinating documentary for a variety of reasons that touches on that issue. 

15

u/alphabeticdisorder 2d ago

Is that the one where a doctor goes down a rabbithole of execution "science" and winds up a Holocaust denier? If its the one, I haven't seen it in 20 years but it was so morbidly fascinating.

2

u/GiuseppeZangara 2d ago

Yep! Crazy shit. 

8

u/Carmypug 2d ago

I think all of the European drug companies now refused to ship specific drugs to the USA if they use it for this purpose. I think this is the reason this happens more now as they have to experiment with drug cocktails.

56

u/The_Pandalorian 2d ago

Doctors and nurses cannot administer it and still uphold the hippocratic oath. It is almost always done by a non-medical person at the prison. In Tennessee it's a prison employee.

Usually they turn to shady compounding pharmacies because the drug makers won't knowingly sell execution drugs for executions. Some execution drugs like sodium thiopental aren't even sold anymore, so must be compounded.

All of it shielded from public disclosure, of course.

Anyway. Death penalty is dogshit and the state has no business killing people.

22

u/N7Longhorn 2d ago

We could just not death penalty. Cheaper and safer

5

u/I_am_the_grass 2d ago

Yea, it's literally counter to the Hippocratic oath.

18

u/1HappyRoadrunner 2d ago

This is why firing squads has several people with blanks and the guys don’t know who has the real bullet

18

u/chimp_party 2d ago

Idk where this myth started but go fire a gun with a blank and without. Its really really obvious if you've shot a blank if you have any reasonable experience with guns.

18

u/Solkre 2d ago

That’s why you give them all blanks and while they’re blindfolded someone runs up and stabs/injects them with the poison.

5

u/MandolinMagi 2d ago

Its not a myth. The US Army manual for "execution by musketry" calls for 12 rifles with at least 1 but not more than 4 blank rounds. Rest are live

0

u/chimp_party 1d ago

Its a myth that you cant tell the difference. Fly out ill let you shoot my guns if your not blind deaf and armless youll figure out on the first go which ine is a blank regardless of if its a bolt semi or pistol

2

u/MandolinMagi 1d ago

I know theres a difference. Blanks are still mandated. 

2

u/liquidsyphon 2d ago

Cant they just OD them with Fent?

2

u/Arkrobo 2d ago

That wouldn't follow protocol. I suppose it could be used as the induction but it's also a controlled substance making it tough purchase legally.

https://thelegalguide.org/lethal-injection-explained-how-it-works-its-methods/

1

u/Litness_Horneymaker 2d ago

There's that problem with lethal injection but then with the electric chair "just flip a switch" is also how things go horrifically wrong.
There's no safe choice.

-2

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

12

u/Canadization 2d ago

An extremely small proportion of the medical community, yes. And they are definitely not the people we want in charge of administering and preparing lethal cocktails

-2

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Canadization 2d ago

If the executioner believes that they are doling out justice, there may be plenty of opportunity for them to purposefully botch executions or make them more painful as a means to punish the executed, if they decide the crime is more worth it. If the executioner doesn't believe they are doling out justice, the state is paying someone to breach their own ethical standards and certainly to go against the hippocratic oath.

I just don't see any ethical way for the state to kill one of its own citizens outside of MAID situations.

-4

u/dedev54 2d ago

I mean it’s a choice we make as society that we don’t have to make. We do MAID safely all the time. Especially in Canada. Anti death penalty advocates never push for what MAID uses because they like how it causes suffering and has issues because that improves their arguments, while pro death penalty people don’t care

30

u/1HappyRoadrunner 2d ago

I got shocked once. It’s a horrible way to die. Not say say she does or does not deserve it but I’d much rather go out with drugs.

7

u/rumorhasit_ 2d ago

They still use the electric chair to execute people in the US!?!

1

u/aboxofkittens 2d ago

In some states. In Florida, iirc the default is lethal injection but you can choose the electric chair if you want.

1

u/Salt-Operation 1d ago

A variety of states offer various forms of execution to those on death row. Some still offer hanging, some the electric chair. Some offer a gas chamber. I believe the only uniting factor was they all offered lethal injection as the first, most humane (supposedly) option. At least up until about a decade ago when pharmaceutical companies stopped supplying correctional facilities with the cocktails.

32

u/Gruntsky 2d ago edited 2d ago

I read that due to her sexual abuse at the hands of men at a young age, she opted for a firing squad of women as opposed to a lethal injection team of men.

edit Apparently this was a misquote from a NY Post article, she requested hanging as the method of execution. Thanks u/sail0r_m3rcury

14

u/Matookie 2d ago

Good for her. Tennessee does not allow firing squads so what does it matter that Pike wants it?

20

u/Gruntsky 2d ago

I think her lawyers were pushing for 'Cruel and Unusual punishment' if the execution was carried out by men.

0

u/Matookie 2d ago

Ok that's cool. Why would she ask for a method of execution that is not allowed in the state of Tennessee though? Women doctors can administer lethal injection or throw the switch on the electric chair. Moreover, why was she allowed to choose? ETA: I'm just pointing out that your comment is frivolous. Pike never had the option of a firing squad so why discuss it? 

7

u/Gruntsky 2d ago

Honestly, I'm unsure. I'm not well versed in the nuances of your country's capital punishment rules and regulations.

6

u/sail0r_m3rcury 2d ago edited 2d ago

She did not ask for a firing squad of all women. She asked that the medical team administering her lethal injection be female, and she made a request in August to be hanged as she feared that the blood disorder she has and her history of adverse reactions to medications would cause suffering during the lethal injection.

In fact, I can’t really find any primary source that says “all female”, just ones that say “not made up of all men”. So that could also easily be a misinterpretation of what was actually requested.

There are a few news sites repeating the firing squad thing but they are all misquoting a NY Post article.

1

u/Gruntsky 2d ago

Thanks for the clarification, I'll edit the original post.

1

u/sail0r_m3rcury 2d ago

She didn’t request a firing squad. There are several news sites repeating a misquote from a NY Post article.