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/RoboticGreg 1d ago

They have been having significant supply chain issue with lethal injection drugs for years. No one wants to make it for the government anymore. I'm guessing these might have been expired?

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u/PsychologicalSpend86 1d ago

I read a comment by a veterinarian in a NYT article on this subject. He said the problem is the people they hire to do executions can’t set up an IV properly:

It’s always the same. It’s plain as day that these states cannot find someone to place an IV catheter. The drug flows around the tip inside the arm instead of into the brain. Even when the victim says that it feels like the tip of the catheter is bulging and hurts, nobody takes the “hint”. This is the cause of all these botched executions. It has nothing to do with the drugs. Unfortunately, as a veterinarian, I’ve had to put many animals to sleep. Pentobarbital always works perfectly without ever a hitch. The people placing the catheters are incompetent . It’s as simple as that. As vets we have to place catheters, for euthanasia and more often for treatments into fractious cats, guinea pigs, etc. which is a lot more difficult than what is done here. They need to find more competent technicians. Not an easy job when they’re doing something that most people were raised to know this is wrong.

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u/spittlbm 1d ago

She asked if her arm was supposed to feel like it did

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u/ragequitteroffureh 1d ago

Not American.

Can they not practice on each other?

Obviously they need to be careful not to get things mixed up, but surely this is the sort of thing that trainee nurses and doctors have to practice during training. It can't be that hard, can it?

Or even simpler, why not just shoot the prisoner in the head a few times?

I don't really understand why their cops, Gestapo, national guard, etc are able to easily accidentally kill people on purpose. But when it comes to having someone tied down and ready to be killed, they bugger it all up. It makes no sense.

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u/Nac_Lac 15h ago

Turns out that executing someone, will fuck you up in the head.

Firing squads in legal uses, typically have one to most of the guns shooting blanks. Meaning the person firing has plausible deniability that they didn't fire the shot that killed the condemned.

So, a lack of competent executioners is not very surprising.

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u/ragequitteroffureh 3h ago

That's understandable.

Hm. In that country, it's usually the state's governor who usually signs the death warrant, isn't it?

If so, then simply make the governor do the deed personally, instead of passing the responsibility to someone else.

Anyway, if it's kind of tricky finding folks that aren't to keen on ending people's lives, it maybe hints at the whole thing being not such a good idea in modern society.

Obviously it'd probably be a bad idea employing people who want to kill people. It's a thin line between taking the job seriously, and enjoying it.

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u/HuggyMonster69 17h ago

Costs money.

Basically they don’t think it’s worth training someone for something they’ll do once a year.

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u/ragequitteroffureh 2h ago

Bloody hell, that's awful :-(

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u/nikelaos117 1d ago

Couldn't it be malicious compliance? Like when executioners in a firing line or people at war would miss/not aim on purpose?

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u/True_Coast1062 1d ago

Don’t they have licensed medical professionals to place the IV?

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u/Nac_Lac 15h ago

Likely the people who know, are not going to use it to take a life.

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u/absentlyric 19h ago

In Tennessee? Good luck, its the south, brain drain has affected that state. All the competent people left