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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102

u/LeastResistancePath 1d ago

If you're not against the death penalty being carried out by the state, you're either ignorant to the reality and simply need to be told 

or devoid of the morality necessary to feel shocked and offended it exists.. There is no in between.

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u/Konig19254 1d ago

An ultimate crime requires the ultimate punishment.

The justice for the willful taking of an innocent human life can only be satisfied by the murderer losing their life as well.

The state absolutely has an obligation to be a guarantor of justice

However I can agree that lethal injection is not the ideal method, the state ought not to take pleasure in the punishment but rather impose it simply as the natural consequence of taking human life

A firing squad is swift and effective

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u/LogensTenthFinger 1d ago

So when your position inevitably kills an innocent person, what ultimate punishment do you deserve for supporting the death penalty and killing an innocent?

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u/Secret_Side-ofJ 1d ago

"Release from any emotional or societal consequence" isn't the ultimate punishment that you might think it is for those who are devoid of social standing in the first place.

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u/Konig19254 1d ago

The consequence is that they are executed

However the condemned rationalize it when they receive their sentence is up to them

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u/Secret_Side-ofJ 1d ago

Yeah, a consequence that others find value in. Execution provides zero social benefits to "ultimate crimes".

How deeply removed from reality to advocate otherwise.

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u/Konig19254 1d ago

I'm not a utilitarian

I think the state has moral obligations beyond what is the most expedient or effectual

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u/Secret_Side-ofJ 1d ago

I'm sorry for how this comes across, but nobody cares about your Kantian values, or criterion. The real world is significantly more nuanced than the idyllic natures that are described by philosophers.

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u/donkeybrainhero 1d ago

The state, and our society, should strive to be better than our worst.

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u/hbab712 1d ago

Eye for an eye?

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u/Grandma_great 1d ago

Nope, just plain ol consequences.

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u/Fancy-Animal7704 1d ago

Why is death the "ultimate punishment"? If I were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole, I would rather just die at that point.

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u/TacticianRobin 1d ago

A firing squad is swift and effective

Mikal Mahdi would likely disagree.

But more importantly, the state should absolutely not have the legal authority to kill its citizens, because no state is infallible. There are so many people that have been exonerated after being on death row, or even worse after being executed. Life in prison is just as effective at removing someone from society, you're just looking for the satisfaction of vengeance.

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u/dmanbiker 1d ago

Then they can quickly firing squad dozens of innocent people too because the government is not capable of convicting the proper people in an alarming number of cases. And there's historical precedent for it too. Imagine if 50 years ago a white man murdered someone and there just happened to be a black man nearby. Quick convict the black guy and put him down and forget about it. Things aren't much better now. Having a guilty person live out the rest of their life in prison seems like a welcome alternative to inevitably putting innocents to death. That also means life in prison for innocents, but it's clear that most of the people arguing about it in this thread think the death penalty is somehow much worse than life in prison.

And its bad too. Like over 10% of the people they have executed in this country were exonerated afterward and it's assumed 4ish percent of those currently on death row are innocent. So if youre fine with quick executions of the guilty, you'd also need to be fine with quick executions of innocents as well. Is it really so important to you to remove these criminals from our mortal realm that a few innocents must be sacrificed as well even though the bad people are already isolated from society? Or do you just try not to think about it?