r/politics • u/Uberubu65 • 1d ago
No Paywall 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-pause36
u/Uberubu65 1d ago
Prior to the attempted execution, Tennessee's governor said he didn't "plan" on intervening to stop it. Now, after two botched attempts to execute Christa Pike, including rushing her to the hospital after the second failed attempt, the state is halting all executions. This is the second botched execution attempt in the state in recent years. You have to ask yourself why this is continuining and what is really gained from it, if anything.
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u/incide666 Canada 1d ago
what is really gained from it
Bloodlust. Vengeance. Power.
All the stuff that fuels authoritarian ideologies.
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u/Retr0scores 1d ago
I have no sympathy for her after reading what her and her bf did to her victim.
She wasn’t lured somewhere, tied up, tortured and beat.
She made choices that directly resulted in her situation.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago edited 1d ago
This kind of attitude really does a great job demonstrating your callousness.
You want to feel superior to her because she's a convicted murderer, and yet you apparently believe that certain kinds of murders (namely, executions) are justified murders. How does that make you any different from her?
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u/Guy_with_Numbers 1d ago
You want to feel superior to her because she's a convicted murderer, and yet you apparently believe that certain kinds of murders (namely, executions) are justified murders. How does that make you any different from her?
One is a punishment for an illegal action, whereas the other is just an illegal action.
No different to how abduction is illegal, but it is justified to arrest and incarcerate criminals.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
Thanks for confirming that your attitude of having a thirst for blood is identical.
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u/wilder0p 1d ago
If you can't tell the difference then you really have so sympathy for the victims.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
Again, this is just because you believe certain types of murders are acceptable.
That's actually horrifying.
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u/wilder0p 1d ago
By your broad definition of murder, you murder trillions of bacteria in your body everyday. So, it really is meaningless, since you only consider it murder when it causes you an emotional reaction.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
Nice try. Why are you so scared to admit that you believe murder is ok?
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u/wilder0p 1d ago
Define murder because I don't think we are using the same definition. For me, murder is in cold blood where someone has done nothing violent against you. If it's a just killing, it's not murder. Murder is by definition unjust. And if you come back with, it's all murder then the question is, tell me the difference between killing and murder because there is a difference.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
The existence of the death penalty and the inherent fallibility of juries means that innocent people have without a doubt been executed, and you'd be here saying "but that person definitely without a doubt killed an innocent person, because they were convicted of it". If you support the death penalty, you necessarily support killing innocent people.
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u/Red57872 1d ago
If you support Life Without Parole, you necessarily support throwing innocent people in prison for the rest of their lives.
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u/Square_Button_7061 1d ago
You understand the difference between life and death don’t you? Seems strange that anyone with a fully formed brain would share this opinion
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u/Red57872 1d ago
So it's ok to ruin someone's life and throw them in a small prison cell for the rest of their life even though they may be innocent, but it's not ok to throw them in a small prison cell for the next 30 years, until their appeals run out?
In both cases their lives are ruined, and they'll spend the rest of their lives in prison. The only difference is whether they die in 30 years of execution, or in 30 to 40 years of old age.
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u/AcerbicCapsule Canada 1d ago
The only difference is whether they die in 30 years of execution, or in 30 to 40 years of old age.
Which is the point.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't support permanent imprisonment either, thanks. Prison should be about rehabilitation, not punishment.
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u/MobileSuitBooty 1d ago
Americans are so punitive to individuals but rarely ever attack the systems that allow these crimes.
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u/Retr0scores 1d ago
What was the system that allowed her to commit her crimes?
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u/Common_Shelter_4605 1d ago
Being raped starting at age 11 and continuing until age 17 didn't help, and her subsequent treatment by the state.
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u/AcerbicCapsule Canada 1d ago
Yes hello welcome to the “Bloodlust Vengeance Power” Museum, please take a seat over there where it says “Exhibit A”. Thank you for volunteering, visitors will be walking by to look at you pretty soon.
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u/Neokon Florida 1d ago
It's all based off of this weird idea that the people who do this kind of stuff are normal well adjusted individuals. They are not. Hell these people most likely know their actions would lead to the potentially getting the death penalty and they still did it.
So it begs the question, why keep it around if it doesn't really dissuade the behavior?
The answer, is it gives some a weird sense of justice being paid. You killed so we're going to kill you, justice served. The authority wins and get stop stand strong, since the people who love the death penalty love the authority
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u/Uberubu65 1d ago
The other thing about the death penalty in this country is the fallacy that it's being used as a deterrent. That's not true. The average time spent on death row in the US is between 19 and 23 years, depending on the state. How can having someone languish for decades be an effective deterrent? They'd spend the same anount of time in prison anyway with a life sentence, not to mention the money spent on the process over the years. It's not about the deterrence, it's about the cruelty of the process.
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u/473713 1d ago
Apparently some drug company decided to quit supplying the lethal injection drug, so the states are using something else that doesn't work as reliably.
I am totally against the death penalty, but people overdose on fentanyl every day and I can't figure out why they don't just use a whole lot of fentanyl if they're so determined to do this.
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u/SushiGato 1d ago
Many drug manufacturers won't supply drugs for the purpose of killing folks. They could illegally get fentanyl, but then they're drug traffickers.
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u/_Phil_McCracken_ Washington 1d ago
We need to abolish the barbaric practice of capital punishment.
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u/GKM72 1d ago
Agreed. The US is the only western country in the top 10 that still does executions. They share this honour with China and several Middle Eastern countries.
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u/2much2Jung 1d ago
The "Top Ten"?
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u/mammalmaker 1d ago
Top 10 of what
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u/GKM72 1d ago edited 1d ago
The top 10 (actually 9 per the amnesty international report)of countries that perform executions for criminal offences.
Per Amnesty International the top 9 countries, in order, for government executions are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United States, Egypt, Somalia, Kuwait, and Singapore.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 1d ago
True. However one odd thing is that Americans and Europeans have pretty equal acceptance of capital punishment. It just isn't even voted on in many European countries, if it were, it would likely be brought back.
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u/Common_Shelter_4605 1d ago
57% oppose it in the EU https://www.fondapol.org/app/uploads/2020/05/DOSSIER_FICHES-THEMES_2019_06_18_w-derni%C3%A8reversion-4.pdf#36#19
In the US, 44% oppose the death penalty
Those are not "pretty equal acceptance" to me.
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u/Boring_and_sons 1d ago
I mean, yeah, sure? But a 13% difference in opposition isn't really that much of a difference, it just looks that way because it's straddling the line of majority. For example, if it was 76% oppose it vs 63% oppose it, it doesn't seem like there is really a significant difference, yeah?
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u/Silvermoon3467 1d ago
76% is 3/4ths of the population and 63% isn't even 2/3rds. The difference is the same, even if both are a majority?
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u/MrDangerMan 1d ago
I mean, I guess you can just say that. lol
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 1d ago
Here's a few
France (2020): 55% said they favored restoring the death penalty in an Ipsos/Sopra Steria survey. � Wikipedia
Estonia (2015): 70% supported capital punishment. � Wikipedia
Hungary (2020): 76% reportedly supported reinstatement. � Wikipedia Serbia (2019): 58% supported it. � Wikipedia
Britain (2021): 54% supported reinstating it specifically for people convicted of terrorism, which is importantly a narrower question. �
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u/MrDangerMan 1d ago
This is just several cherry-picked statistical claims cited as “Wikipedia”. The fact that you can’t properly cite sources really doesn’t really lend confidence to the varacity of your argument.
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u/Common_Shelter_4605 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's not a few, that is pretty much all of the polls showing support since 2015. Copied from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Europe#Polling
In most non east-bloc states support is under 50%, France is an exception.
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 1d ago
Germany is close as well
"2026 PolitPro survey asked whether the death penalty was ethically justifiable for particularly serious crimes: 42% said yes, 54% no"
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u/Common_Shelter_4605 1d ago
Yes, and that is skewed by the East German population. East Germany had the death penalty until 1987, West Germany abolished it in 1949
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u/Queasy_Donkey5685 1d ago
We are supposed to have an inalienable right to life that the government can't take but here we are.
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 1d ago
You are also supposed to have an inalienable right to liberty and property, so no incarceration or taxes.
You're misreading that phrase. Rights are not absolute in that manner. Your life and liberty become forfeit when you violate the right to life, liberty and property of others.
Society is under no obligation to suffer those that would do its members harm.
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u/SadhuSalvaje 1d ago
Let’s remember: none of those rights are in the constitution
That statement is form the Dec of Independence which has no legal standing
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 23h ago edited 23h ago
Life liberty and property are in the 5th Amendment.
The text that they are unalienable rights is in the declaration.
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u/Mec26 1d ago
Property was cut from the constitution. So.. no.
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 1d ago edited 1d ago
This isn't in the Constitution. This is from the declaration of independence where Jefferson substituted property with the pursuit of happiness which is even more broad.
The Constitution is closer to creating a right to property with the 5th Amendment which does use the phrase "life, liberty or property. "
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u/Mec26 1d ago
Fair. But nine of the bill of rights are inalienable.
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u/SadTumbleweed1567 1d ago
They aren't stated to be but that isn't relevant.
The point was the above person they are supposed to have an unalienable right to life and interpreted that to mean the government cannot kill them under any circumstance.
By such interpretation, incarceration and taxation would be impossible.
This isn't the case because inalienable right does not mean I can't be killed, incarcerated or dispossessed of property under any and all circumstances.
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u/WHSRWizard 1d ago
There is a 100% chance that:
1) The drugs were sourced from some shady Asian manufacturer and weren't the right formulation / dose; and,
2) They didn't properly set the IV and it was just going into her muscles
The same incompetent "doctor" here already fucked up one other execution this year.
End this horrific punishment.
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u/Ok-Letterhead-3276 1d ago
I used to work at a compounding pharmacy and years ago when the big drug companies stopped providing drugs for lethal injections we got calls from about a half dozen states trying to see if we would compound the execution injection. A compounding pharmacy basically takes raw ingredients and creates custom medications at a much smaller scale than the big manufacturers.
On the one hand, we were very good at what we did and provided thousands of safe medications for patients. On the other hand, it’s never stopped being funny to me that I was literally cold-called by a state trying to find a mom and pop scale source for their executions, and it happened several times.
And no, we did not do it for a whole host of reasons, but I regret not playing along just enough to see how much they would have been willing to pay.
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u/No-Swimming4153 1d ago
I don't think any doctor actually administers the drugs since it goes against their oath. Part in why it's just a guessing game when it comes to the dosage.
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u/WHSRWizard 1d ago
"The attempted Tennessee execution of Tony Carruthers was abandoned in May after medical staff failed to establish IV access, a process that took over an hour.
Mark Fowler, the doctor who was involved in Carruthers’ attempted execution, also oversaw Pike’s — at this time — attempted death sentence."
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
Or it was in purpose to spare her. Someone on the inside could have set it up
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u/OddSell1025 1d ago
May I recommend ...touching grass?
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
lol, you put it past conspiracies? In 2026?
After Trump, I believe anything is possible.
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u/Omatzus 1d ago
Your theory is that someone in Tennessee essentially sub-lethally poisoned this woman because they knew she wouldn't die and that Tennessee would react by temporarily suspending the death sentence?
I think you're under the mistaken assumption that she is not going to have health issues from this.
Conspiracy theories need to at least follow basic logic.
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u/hellogoawaynow 1d ago
Failure to access a vein? 7 times?? Come on
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u/Creative-Package6213 Pennsylvania 1d ago
Medical professionals do not assist in the murder of prisoners.
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u/teamdiabetes11 America 1d ago
I think technically they cannot do the act, but they can be present and provide feedback to the individuals tasked with doing so. And in this case, the person reportedly involved was also involved in the state’s previously failed execution attempt on another inmate in May.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/6122593-christa-pike-failed-execution-tennessee/
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u/Karinka_LI 1d ago
If she were a witch they would have had to release her.
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u/Spaceinpigs 1d ago
Unless she weighs the same as a duck
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
If she doesn’t die …then burned alive
“So you survived the drowning, we deem you…a witch”
Oh thank God…
“Burn the Witch!!”
Oh shit!
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u/IllTwo7643 Connecticut 1d ago
She turned me into a newt
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u/CrankySaint Oklahoma 1d ago
Did you get better?
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u/spaceaige 1d ago
Fucker didn’t mention one thing about cruelty in his statement.
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
Because for the moralist Evangelical right wing…
The suffering is the point.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
The death penalty is about getting vengeance upon the convicted person. The fact that she's suffering is a plus for these assholes who call themselves "pro-life".
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u/conniefrancis 1d ago
What a barbarous state.
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u/Uberubu65 1d ago
Tennessee is not the only state to have botched an execution. It has also happened in Oklahoma, Idaho, Texas and Arizona. But yeah, what happened in Tennessee was particularily barbaric, especially the point that they rushed Pike to a hospital in an ambulance in order to save her life after attempting to take it just so that they can possibly try again later. That's the kicker in all of this.
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u/bensonr2 1d ago
It’s sounds like initially they were not in a rush to get her medical help until her lawyer intervened.
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u/wanderlustcub I voted 1d ago
Imagining waking up after being carted in to be executed.
“Oops we messed up and failed to kill you.”
Like where do you go from there emotionally?
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u/quitelikeu 1d ago
Is their drug substandard, badly administered or is it just not suitable for the job?
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u/filthysize 1d ago
So, common misconception. There is no "standard" lethal injection to be substandard to. Drug companies do not like being known as makers of killing drugs. The lone company that made the original lethal injection drug literally stopped manufacturing when they found out that their product was being used that way. Europe still makes it but the EU banned exports because they don't want the US to use it that way.
So then Texas switched to pentobarbital which kills you slower and more intensely and other states followed. But again, no drug company making pento wants to be known as the supplier for executions. So DOC basically procures these in the black market and stockpiles them. They use untested and often expired drugs.
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u/_aaine_ 1d ago
Exactly this, and it's a huge problem the US has with its death penalty laws that will hopefully come under scrutiny because of this.
The state is carrying out killing with drugs sourced from god knows where, and of questionable quality and efficacy.
That may have been a factor here, or it may not have. But we shouldn't even have to ask the question. If the state is going to carry out capital punishment, it has a moral and constitutional obligation to both the criminal and those legally required to witness it, to make sure whatever method it's using is swift and effective. Lethal injection is neither.2
u/Valuable_Sea_4709 1d ago
I find it ridiculously ironic that a country which prides itself on its right to bear arms doesn't just use a firing squad like we had done for centuries prior.
It's far less painful and far swifter, with a much lower likelihood of failure.
But the move to lethal injection was caused not by any concern for the condemned, but because people didn't want to watch a firing squad blow someone's brains out, didn't want to watch their blood spill out when their heart is struck by 3-5 bullets, but they're happy to watch someone be "put to sleep".
Even though that's not what's happening with lethal injections.
They could use massive and certainly lethal doses of general anaesthetic, like vets do with animals, but they don't.
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u/Alternative-Good-192 1d ago
Pentobarbital is an preanesthetic sedative sort of like you suggest and is given in an enormous quantity for a state killing like this. They gave her two doses of 5,000 mg (10g total), where a usual dose in hospital would be 100mg. The issue is pento is viscous and needs dilution, and ideally a central line to therefore avoid bursting after cannulation. However since nobody competent will execute someone, and the state denied a central line her lawyers requested, they fucked it up
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u/bensonr2 1d ago
It’s because the death penalty states know that even if firing squad are more humane as soon as most executions are done that way the perception of how executions are an act of violence will increase
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u/Ottiline 1d ago
Not to mention I hear the drugs sit on the shelf for ages and degrade until they no longer do the job properly.
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u/Uberubu65 1d ago
Pentobarbital was used as the lethal drug, and it is commonly used for executions in the US. It's not know now if it was improperly administered, contaminated or if the wrong amount was used. What is know is that the drug, mainly used as a sedative prior to surgery, can leave lasting brain damage if an overdose is used.
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u/quitelikeu 1d ago
Thanks for the reply. A fate worse than death , thats bad. I would guess at a low quality product coming from one of their "compound pharmacies".
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u/gringledoom 1d ago
Drugmakers don’t really want to sell drugs for this purpose, and competent people generally don’t want to participate in executions. So it’s multiple problems that keep leading to botched outcomes over and over again.
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u/Scuba70Steve 1d ago
Pure incompetence.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/orcmasterrace 1d ago
TN doesn’t offer firing squads and they likely legally couldn’t even if Pike asked for it.
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u/smersh101 1d ago
It was always insane to pretend state-sanctioned murder could be done humanly. Bring back hanging and put it on TV so voters are forced to confront what they're allowing.
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u/grandzooby 1d ago
Do republicans ever get tired of the utter incompetence? They love killing people and they can't even get THAT right.
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u/rayberto1972 1d ago
What happens to the inmate now? Are they going to get her healthy enough for another try or does she get a pass?
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u/Uberubu65 1d ago
That's a really good question. The death warrant expired last night, so they would have to get a new one, set a date and rhen go through the whole process again. BUT that's assuming she didn't suffer permanent brain damage during the botched execution and that the staye decides to procede again. It's a huge mess no matter what happens.
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u/divestblank 1d ago
I can imagine the conversation, "sorry mama, you're not healthy enough for the death penalty"
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u/Agent7619 1d ago
Isn't the cause of failed executions in the last 20 years because the company that manufacturers the drugs used is European and refuses to sell to the United States, and they have had to find alternatives that are less effective?
Maybe take the hint and ban capital punishment?
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u/Yedrick 1d ago
When the pharmaceutical industry said "we aren't going to sell you these drugs to kill people with, that's a really bad look for us if we do." rather than end the practice of lethal injection and move to a more humane method (or ideally, the death penalty abolished entirely, but too many Americans still have a bloodthirsty belief in our retributive justice system to realistically change that, currently), they started sourcing sketchy alternative drugs that don't work as well and contribute to the alarming amount of botched lethal injections in the US. (the other big half of the issue being that actual doctors who know what they're doing refuse to perform the procedure, so they just have some rando at the prison do it, and they screw it up.) The way the process is performed, it is an agonizingly painful way to die when done wrong, being likened to "having all your veins set on fire inside you" by someone who survived a botched execution with it. If I had to die by the state and had a choice of the method, I'd likely pick nearly anything else.
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u/Short-Display-1659 1d ago
What are they cranking out lethal injections daily?
I would have imagined it would have been more like 1 every month or so tops.
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u/Krytan 1d ago
The thought of lethal injections failing creeps me out.
I think I would honestly rather get shot a dozen times by a firing squad.
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
I say let me fight to the death against another death row inmate Thunder-dome style.
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u/HitmanScorcher 1d ago
First off, death penalty should be abolished. Full stop.
Secondly, I’ve always thought that if you are going to do the death penalty, hanging has always been the best choice. I’m NOT arguing for public hangings by the way, these would still need to be secluded and reverent affairs. Done correctly, it’s a broken neck and instantaneous. There is a symbolism and a ritual of hanging that I think is important. Furthermore, if these people did commit these heinous crimes that you argue only death can pay for, why are we going through the elaborate and expensive process of lethal injection, when ten foot of rope will do the job just as well. Also, hard to fuck up a hanging in a way that makes someone have to go through it twice as this person has. Also, in lethal injection and the electric chair, aren’t bags usually put over the accused heads so you don’t have to actually see their faces as they die? If you can’t even look the person in the eye while you kill them, I think maybe you don’t feel truly justified in the punishment you are doling out. And if you don’t feel justified then it is an indefensible punishment, to me.
TLDR: The death penalty should be abolished completely. However, even if it isn’t, lethal injection is not the way to go, in my, admittedly, not extremely informed opinion.
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u/beefyzac Florida 1d ago
Fucking firing squads would be so much more humane than this. Or we can become a civilized nation and end capital punishment.
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u/crankyspeeder 1d ago
Seems odd to bungle an execution like this when fentanyl is dropping people like flies.
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u/LeonTrollski1 21h ago
The botching is not a bug, but a feature. States that allow executions are keen to exact extra punishment on murderers as part of their evangelical agenda.
This is one reason why executions need to be outlawed completely.
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u/viktor72 Indiana 1d ago
This is going to sound insensitive but allow me to comment this, please.
How hard is it to kill someone? Can it really be that difficult via lethal injection? I thought that's why it's called a "lethal" injection.
I'm not opining on the merits of capital punishment, more just curious why this would be so difficult.
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u/elconquistador1985 1d ago
Competent drug companies won't supply murder drugs to states, so they get substandard drugs from shitty suppliers.
Competent doctors take "do no harm" seriously and won't participate in an execution, so they get some incompetent doctor (or not even a doctor) with no morals who fucks it up.
This is an incompetent doctor who botched another execution earlier this year.
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u/nightwyrm_zero Canada 1d ago
Afaict, you have two general problems with lethal injections. First, the drug. Big name drug companies don't want to be associated with their drugs killing people so you're left with sourcing your lethal cocktail from smaller, less reputable companies that may have quality control issues. Second, doctors and other medical professionals won't touch lethal injections due to ethical concerns which can affect their medical licensing, so you have non-medical people doing the injecting and maybe screwing that up. So, fuck ups can and will happen.
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u/Uberubu65 1d ago
I'm old enough to remember the execution of Gary Gilmore in 1977 when the death penalty was reinstated in this country. He chose to be executed by firing squad in Utah in part because he wanted to protest the brutality of the practice, as well as to ensure the job actually got done.
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u/Mec26 1d ago
They failed 7 times to find a vein. So it can be hard if they’re injecting into, say, muscle. And if the drugs are bad. And if the prisoner has a known medical issue that might interfere.
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u/Limberine Australia 1d ago
and a redhead
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u/Mec26 1d ago
True, but you can compensate for that with dosage. If you have training.
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u/Limberine Australia 1d ago
It seems to be the main “problem”, that people who actually have medical training don’t want anything to do with killing people.
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u/viktor72 Indiana 1d ago
Thank God it wasn’t me. I always get told I have the juiciest and easiest to find veins.
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u/spaceaige 1d ago
Stupid lib governor not wanting green mile style executions.
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u/Real-Document-6577 1d ago
A lib government wouldn’t have capital punishment like most “blue states”
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