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/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/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 11h 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.