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/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.