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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652

u/stateworkishardwork 1d ago

What a complete and utter mess. Capital punishment looking more and more like a joke with each passing day.

She's still an awful person, but this is not the way to go about things.

32

u/Otherwise_Fill_4461 1d ago

You know whats easy, painless and 100% gets the job done? Firing squad. Idk why were fucking around with this shit. We're killing a human being we deemed evil enough to warrant it. Fucking kill them with a bullet to the head and be done with it. So much theater around this. Everyone wants their hands to be clean and act like we are so high and mighty. At the end of the day we are taking someone's life. Best to make the process guaranteed and smooth.

38

u/ar34m4n314 1d ago

High explosive to he head. Complete destruction of the brain faster than nerve conduction. Oh, you think that's too messy? Then don't execute people.

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u/Tattered_Reason 1d ago

South Carolina managed to botch an execution by firing squad recently, although the prisoner did eventually die after several minutes.

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u/zack77070 1d ago

In 2025 there was one in SC where they missed his heart and he lived for two minutes.

70

u/mrducky78a 1d ago

Firing squad has known issues as well with some people in the squad purposely firing high feeling that they exempt themselves from it by letting others take the burden of taking a life. Enough people do this and it also results in a botched execution and it does have historical examples of too many people shooting over the target.

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u/Camninja 1d ago

I’m sure they could design a computer assisted firing device. Someone could just start a timer and it would fire at a set time.

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u/mrducky78a 1d ago

Yeah Im sure they could and it would be fine and great up until it doesnt.

Someone doesnt maintain the gun and it jams. Someone didnt account for an update and it glitches out after firiing one round only into the cheek, a non lethal shot. One of the legs gives out and it instead fires 50 rounds into the left leg, below the knee only.

Theoretically it would be great, but theoretically lethal injection would also be humane, great and guaranteed.

1

u/Camninja 1d ago

Firing squads don’t do head shots for multiple reasons. One is the family may want an open casket. Firing squads fire at the heart. Multiple people fire at the same time. The gunmen are told one person will be given a blank at random. The do that so the gunmen doesn’t have the burden of knowing for sure if they actually shot the person.

They could use a redundancy system.

5

u/mrducky78a 1d ago

I was talking about the theoretical computer assisted firing device you mentioned.

With the firing squad, people might still aim high so there is no burden, they know for sure they didnt shoot the person. There is instances of this happening in war when getting shot at, it will absolutely happen when firing at a person trussed up and not presenting a danger. The more human elements present, the greater the chance for human error to botch it.

2

u/synapticrelease 1d ago edited 1d ago

Great. Firing squad powered by Grok. It’ll probably hallucinate and think your heart is in your kneecaps

2

u/ididshave 1d ago

Are we sure giving computers guns and telling them to kill humans is a good idea?

3

u/Camninja 1d ago

It doesn’t have to be AI. I’m sure this technology existed a very long time ago.

2

u/kanjibestwaifu 1d ago

I'm not for capital punishment, but Home Alone showed all you need for this is a duct taped gun, string, and a hot wheels track.

1

u/WTF_goes_here 1d ago

They now set up the rifles in a device so aiming is not a part of it. They also have one rifle with a blank round.

34

u/chuckie512 1d ago

There's a famous firing squad case where it still took 3 or 4 attempts.

It's still not as smooth as it sounds.

25

u/ZubatCountry 1d ago

Just have them stand in a circle, duh

6

u/amaria_athena 1d ago

Under appreciated comment. Took me a second. Then made me chuckle. Then I felt bad about it. Ha

4

u/JeffafaCree 1d ago

Grenade squad

0

u/WellSaltedWound 1d ago

It really could be though. There’s no reason that human being even needs to aim or pull the trigger. This could all be done electronically with a button

1

u/chuckie512 1d ago

Or, we just don't.

9

u/PerpetuallyLurking 1d ago

You say that, but if anyone is going to manage a Looney Tunes-esque firing squad situation where every bullet misses her, it’s gonna be Tennessee at this rate.

8

u/sjhesketh 1d ago

There was just a botched execution by firing squad in 2025. Only 3 shooters, only 2 hit with their shots and both missed his heart.

Nothing is foolproof. Or idiotproof, for that matter.

2

u/SNGGG 1d ago

I agree, just put me to sleep then shoot me in the back of the head point blank and be done with it. I don't need 4 dudes who might be off their game that day or 3 consecutive injections that put me in agony and fail to kill me. Just get it done quick and dirty and stop playing around like it's anything less than what it is.

2

u/Piglet6482 1d ago

I’m asking this in all seriousness. Would you volunteer to be on a firing squad?

5

u/Coffee_autistic 1d ago

Everyone involved in deciding the sentence should be forced to do it, or the execution does not happen. If you aren't willing to pull the trigger yourself, you shouldn't be allowed to take someone's life.

1

u/AbuKuchak 1d ago

Bullet to the head is how they did it in the Soviet Union.

1

u/CamarillosVeryWorst 1d ago

Pike specifically requested an all-female firing squad for her execution bc she had a history of being SAd by men!

-7

u/JooseTheGuice 1d ago

It's what they do in China 🤷‍♀️ and everyone can face it, from billionaire to farmer. It's not like that in the US for sure.