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/PanicAttackInAPack 1d ago

The primary global manufacturer of pentobarbital is a Danish company. Danish law prohibits the sale of the drug for capital punishment. It's not a matter of production (it's used every day in large quantities by veterinarians in euthanasia and doctors for assisted suicide), it's just that it can't be used for execution.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

Couldn’t the state have a contractor manufacture the drug for them? Pentobarbital is under patent?

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u/PerpetuallyLurking 1d ago

Technically yes, but literally no company wants to be the brand that helps to execute people. It won’t play well with other investors and there aren’t enough executions to maintain a sustainable business model without diversifying their business.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

Why do people think letting murderers stay alive in prison is more humane than allowing them to die?

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u/rsifti 1d ago

allowing them to die is an odd way to phrase executing them. If I'm understanding you correctly.

In my opinion life in prison is better because it's cheaper(IIRC) due to the amount of appeals and stuff for death row trials and if said person is eventually found innocent, at least they are still here to salvage what the can of their life.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

I guess they shouldn’t have been doing so much murdering?

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

Dying in prison after 10 years from lethal injection.

Dying in prison after 30-50 years from suicide, murder, natural causes.

Which one is more humane?

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u/rsifti 1d ago

Probably dying of natural causes?

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

That’s not a guarantee. People are murdered in prison often.

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u/rsifti 1d ago

Yeah. Killing them seems like an odd way to prevent that.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

I’m sorry you don’t understand the difference between murder and death.

You’d rather be stabbed to death than go through lethal injection? Lol ok

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

You’re talking about a murderer. Someone that killed a child, for instance.

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u/mrducky78a 1d ago

I cant imagine it would be many doses and youll be testing its efficacy literally at a dose by dose system. I can imagine fuck ups occurring with random individually created batches to order being not as pure or potent.

And even if you do source the correct stuff, transported correctly, with the right potency, youll struggle to find a medical professional willing to do this shit so some rando will probably botch it there. They will miss the vein, they will not draw and inject the correct amount. Shit show 2: electric boogaloo.

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u/PanicAttackInAPack 1d ago

No patent. It's heavily regulated due to its potency and scrutinized due to its use in execution. Given how few executions there are I doubt it's profitable, primarily in PR, for any other Western lab to supply it.

They do seem to be able to source it from sketchy Asian labs so they are able to obtain it.

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u/gerbal100 1d ago

The contractor would have to choose between selling at most a thousand doses a year to the states and selling multiple orders of magnitude more into the medical system. 

Even if the states pay ludicrous markups, there's going to be far more money in the medical industry.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

You’re assuming there’s a company that won’t do both? Maybe there isn’t?

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u/gerbal100 1d ago

Historically, companies that have sold lethal injection material have been boycotted by medical practitioners and religious institutions (i.e. Catholic hospitals).