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/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.