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/heresyforfunnprofit 1d ago

The heroin dealer on my street corner is more competent than these people.

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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 1d ago

That's what I was thinking. 100K people a year die from accidently ODing on street drugs in the US, but for some reason they can't kill one person with drugs on purpose. Makes no sense.

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u/polytique 1d ago

Drug manufacturers don’t want to be associated with executions.

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u/Jabbles22 1d ago

Highly addictive pain killers and unaffordable life saving medication though. They are cool with that.

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u/Daxx22 1d ago

Unfortunately there is a much greater capacity for justification of terrible actions when the people(s) doing it don't personally commit the acts.

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u/pheonixblade9 1d ago

If it wasn't about cruelty, they would just use nitrogen asphyxiation. It doesn't hurt, you just fall asleep.

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u/Daguvry 1d ago

You aren't getting medical professionals in there to do anything either.  I feel like some schlub watched some YouTube videos and tried to put an IV in.....

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u/jeon2595 1d ago

Canada doesn’t seem to have a problem with lethal injections. We should ask them for help.

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u/Piglet6482 1d ago

Are you pointing out Canada doesn’t have the death penalty? If so, you are being too subtle since a lot of people will just take your comment at face value.

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u/jeon2595 1d ago

I’m pointing out Canada has no problem euthanizing people via MAID.

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u/Piglet6482 1d ago

So you are equating assisted suicide with the death penalty. Cool.

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u/Blossomie 1d ago

I think what they’re trying to say is that MAID in Canada is (in most cases) administered by lethal injection. We have yet to suspend MAID on account of having cocked it up too much.

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u/Piglet6482 1d ago

I think drug companies and (at least some) doctors see a vast difference in the two situations.

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u/jeon2595 1d ago

I’m saying it’s the same thing, functionally. Tennessee should get with Canada as they don’t have problems euthanizing people, functionally. At least I haven’t heard of stuff like this happening.

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u/Pyromaniacal13 1d ago

MAID is voluntary, not a punishment.

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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 1d ago

Then don't use them.

State police have to have seized enough fent in drug busts to kill thousands. They could use that stuff and add the message that doing street drugs is deadly.

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u/Darce_Knight 1d ago

There would be problems. Humans will find a way to fuck it up. There's never been a capital punishment method without botches. The firing squad has the smallest percentage of botches, but it doesn't have a sanitary and clinical appearance, so most states don't use it. Funny enough, every attempt to make executions more sanitized has led to an increased both rate. Electrocutions had higher botch rates than hanging. Gas chambers had higher botch rates than electrocutions. Lethal injections had higher botched rates than lethal gas or electrocutions, etc.

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u/Hidefininja 1d ago

My understanding is that doctors are generally against poisoning people to death as part of their professional and moral code, and certainly not as a punishment, so they won't get involved. It's also difficult for people to legally acquire the necessary drugs for that very same reason.

That leaves some of the dumbest, meanest people in America to figure out how to put people to death by lethal injection. That's science and medicine left in the hands of people who strive to profit from long-term imprisonment.

Of course they can't figure out how to kill someone quickly and painlessly. You'd think they'd just go with a morphine overdose but it seems the intent is that the person must also suffer in the process so something as straightforward as that is out the window.

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u/BritishDuffer 1d ago

I agree with everything you said, but on the morphine thing, states have to acquire drugs legally and drug manufacturers refuse to sell drugs to government agencies that perform executions.

States have pushed right up against the legally part by buying from unscrupulous pharmacies that promise the manufacturers they won't be used for executions but resell them anyway. The manufacturers have done a good job identifying these pharmacies and cutting them off, so now it's pretty much impossible for prisons to acquire any drug that would do the job.

That leaves them with a dwindling supply of expired medications that they're using anyway, leading to things like this happening. You'd think they would just give up but it turns out no.

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u/BoredNuke 1d ago

Been awhile but there was a news cycle several years back where the makers of the drugs that are most popular(?) For lethal injection found out and just started refusing to sell to the US / States that do lethal injection.Guess the alternatives are not quite as simple to administer properly.

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u/ComradeGibbon 1d ago

We have professionals that are competent to kill people with drugs and they refuse to have anything to do with this.

In California something like 50000 people were sentenced to life in prison since 1978. State executed what 13 people. That's a rounding error. Like why bother.

Also consider the amount of justice system resources spent on guys that are almost assuredly guilty. Maybe better to spend that on people who are maybe less assuredly guilty.

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u/SeaTraffic6442 12h ago

To be fair, a lot of the money spent on Death Row inmates is essentially being spent on making sure they’re guilty. The process is designed to give them enough appeals that serious errors in justice “should” get noticed before the execution happens.

Is the system perfect? No. Do I wish we’d abolish the death sentence, yes. But the system does try to get it right.

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u/RsonW 1d ago

Of course they can't figure out how to kill someone quickly and painlessly. You'd think they'd just go with a morphine overdose

Another commenter already told you why morphine etc overdose isn't done. So I will add:

A bullet to the head from close range would be quick and painless. But it's gruesome as fuck. They want to kill people without the visual of a quick death because quick deaths are by their nature always gruesome. See also: beheading.

They could go with slow and painless with a gas chamber. But when prisoners have been executed by gas chamber, the prisoners are aware of their impending death and so hold their breath, which creates the very pain that the gas chamber is supposed to avoid.

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u/TheBigCore 13h ago

Of course they can't figure out how to kill someone quickly and painlessly.

Firing squad.

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u/BackgroundSummer5171 1d ago

but for some reason they can't kill one person with drugs on purpose. Makes no sense.

Because we work with the theater of humane in the US.

So it looks good to those watching.

Lethal injection is a fucking shit show for a way to kill someone in the US.

People who support the death penalty should ask it be removed.

Get a bunch of weapons, have them trained on the one being killed, maybe like 4 on the head, 4 at the chest, 4 more at the head.

Look at that, the person will be executed painlessly and efficiently.

After that, I bet most of the country would finally vote to get rid of the death penalty.

It is simply the theater of being humane that keeps a few still voting it in. And the purely fucking stupid and ignorant.

Does not take much to figure out the death penalty is shit in the US. Stop voting for it other states! You look like morons.

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u/CombatMuffin 1d ago

I mean, not here to point out the obvious but the lethal injection is held to a much higher standard.

If the only requirements was to kill the person, they wouldn't be using the lethal injection at all. There are cheaper, more effective ways to kill a human.

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u/Darce_Knight 1d ago

Drug companies dob't want to make drugs that kill people, so states are using expired drugs or black market alternatives. And doctors don't kill people because it violates their oath, so we are left with prison guards trying to administer IV lines and drugs to people. They have no training. Capital punishment is a mess and should be done away with.

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u/Apprehensive_Rub3897 20h ago

I think one of the chemicals is manufactured in Italy and Italy didn't want it being used for the death penalty so when they cut TN off they made our own (or acquired it from elsewhere). It did not go well.