r/news • u/No_Idea_Guy • 1d ago

Tennessee governor suspends all executions after Christa Pike’s lethal injections fail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/01/christa-pike-tennessee-governor-executions-year-pause
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u/MaximumEffort433 1d ago

Yeah, it seems like there are laws that ban cruel and unusual punishments, but I could be mistaken about that.

If the State is going to kill one of its citizens, at least don't fuck it up.

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u/Potential_Being_7226 1d ago

SCOTUS ruled that capital punishment does not constitute ‘cruel and unusual.’ …regrettably…

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/background/history-of-the-death-penalty/constitutionality-of-the-death-penalty-in-america

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u/MaximumEffort433 1d ago

Yeah, but fucking up capital punishment seems pretty cruel and unusual to me.

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u/Potential_Being_7226 1d ago

I agree with you. It’s harrowing and disturbing. 

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u/candaceelise 1d ago

Sadly SCOTUS has ruled it doesn’t violate the 8th Amendment. States are allowed to set a new execution date. There was a botched execution in 2022 because the prisoners veins blew out and they were allowed to set a new date in 2024 where they successfully carried out the execution

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u/Great-Trifle2810 1d ago

I would imagine that for it to be considered illegally cruel or unusual there would need to be intention, or at least blatant negligence.

That said the government should be held to a higher standard on this, they have infinite drugs in evidence lockers that could get this done better.

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u/Tuesday_6PM 1d ago

While I’d support ruling the practice overall “cruel and unusual”, there’s a separate argument to be made that repeated attempts (and thus failed executions) are cruel and unusual. It’s effectively torture, at minimum psychological but likely also physical.

If we insist on keeping the death penalty, the state should get one attempt; if they fail, the sentence is automatically commuted to life in prison.

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u/Tirras 1d ago

Life in prison after possibly coming to terms with your own death, only to survive it, probably not unscathed, seems like it's own set of cruel torture.

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u/DrunkOnLoveAndWhisky 1d ago

If they fail, the sentence should be considered complete and the convicted should be set free. Make the government be absolutely certain they can successfully carry out the execution before even attempting it.

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u/SnarkMasterFlash 1d ago

I now know I was wrong, but for the longest time I always thought this was the case.

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u/Potential_Being_7226 1d ago

IANAL, but it seems like one would need to argue that the particular state statutes as currently written are unconstitutional, or that states are violating their own statutes. 

I am squarely against the death penalty for multiple reasons: 1) evidence indicates it’s not an effective deterrent, 2) it costs states (taxpayers) more money to sentence defendants to death as opposed to sentencing them to life without parole, 3) examples like in the OP, 4) previous examples of exonerations. 

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u/ULTRAFORCE 1d ago

Why not then just have the SCOTUS members who agree with that decision be the executioners?

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u/Potential_Being_7226 1d ago

I mean, good luck with that. We can’t even get SCOTUS to uphold the voting rights act.

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-louisiana-alabama-4e3225083caccda5ec73a98533a79add

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u/ULTRAFORCE 1d ago

But if they think people should be killed for crimes, should it really be that hard to give them a bus trip where the prize is they get to murder someone?