# Tennessee Fails to Execute the Execution of Christa Pike. Twice **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2026, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507 "2026-10-01T08:24:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/61 "2026-10-01T22:45:51Z")
We pay good money for people to run legal and humane prisons. Part of this (in the US) is doing legal, humane executions. They took our money and did not do the job we paid them for. Fire them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/62 "2026-10-01T22:50:29Z")
I remember the prisons used to have a lethal cocktail of several drugs for executions. The manufacturers helped cause this suffering by forcing prisons to use less effective drugs. Making executions unnecessarily prolonged and painful. Imho executions should be carried out as painlessly and quickly as possible. Instead we’re back to firing squads and inferior drugs for executions. > **[The Secrecy Behind the Drugs Used to Carry Out the Death Penalty](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/the-secrecy-behind-the-drugs-used-to-carry-out-the-death-penalty/283348/)** > > Inmates killed by lethal injection used to get a dose of sodium thiopental. But that drug is no longer available, and, in a blow to transparency, prison officials in Missouri and elsewhere won't say how it has been replaced. > [@](#): > > The Missouri case, and many others like it, all stem from the same development in 2011. Early that year, the manufacturers of sodium thiopental, the key ingredient in the lethal “cocktail” states were using, announced they would stop making the drug due to objections about its use for capital punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/63 "2026-10-01T22:55:04Z")
why aren’t there doctors in the US doing this? … I mean you still got 100s of 1000s of far right, white supremacy/biblethumbers/eye-for-an-eye people/what-not-people … isn’t there a single MD amongst them= probably the core of my Q: out of the 330.000.000ish americans, is there NOT one single medic willing to do the deed? (just look at the number of clowns that have no problem being associated with DJT government …) that is the logical “missing link” that I struggle with in the context of America and death sentence. Or are there other requisites as well (e.g. ONLY MD in corrections) … Even than, you could still have a “job advert” for MD-wanted willing to supply deadly drugs to prisoner (and execute, what is ultimately a STATE and FEDERATION POLICY. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/64 "2026-10-01T22:58:21Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > why aren’t there doctors in the US doing this? … I mean you still got 100s of 1000s of far right, white supremacy/biblethumbers/eye-for-an-eye people … Because they would lose their license to practice after having done it, ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/65 "2026-10-01T22:58:42Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Are there any types of executions which can’t fail? We’ve heard of botched hangings and electrocutions, and now injections? Perhaps we should be considering the guillotine which has/had virtually zero percent chance of failure (maybe the odd time the blade might get stuck in its tracks, but a little grease, and try again)? Althought statistically unlikely, there were sometimes mechanical failures due to poor maintenence, inclement weather, or sloppy workmanship on the part of the executioner that resulted in difficult deaths. The problem with the blade getting stuck in the tracks, which did happen, is sometimes it just slowed the blade down enough to allow it to hit the prisoner but instead of cleanly severing the neck the blade was instead lodged there. Any method of execution is going to have an error rate even if it’s low. The truth is that a lot of execution methods are designed primary to make us feel better about doing it. We want to make it as clean as possible for us. I used to be strongly pro death penalty, but discussions on the subject here at the SDMB many years ago caused me to rethink my position and I’m midly against it now. I don’t think it’s wrong to kill people in some circumstances, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have the death penalty for a variety of other reasons. > [@wolfpup](#): > > I sympathize with the victim’s parents and cannot even imagine the pain the loss of their daughter must have caused them, but even so, the idea of traveling halfway across the country to watch somebody being killed is bizarre. As far as bizarre goes, once you lose a child to homicide I think that ship has sailed. You’re in bizzaro land for the rest of your life. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/66 "2026-10-01T22:58:44Z")
They’d lose their medical licenses. The right has been working hard at creating conservative analogs to every US institution but there’s no nutjob medical licensing group yet. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/67 "2026-10-01T23:02:47Z")
If she ends up being brain damaged, it would be awesome if she sued and won. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/68 "2026-10-01T23:03:11Z")
The state wanted her dead but failed, so now she’s receiving lifesaving medical care. Wonder how much more this is costing the taxpayers than life in prison would have? (This is presuming that no one will try to withdraw the lifesaving care in such a _pro-life_ state as Tennessee.) ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/69 "2026-10-01T23:05:23Z")
interesting (didn’t know that) … so as a MD you’d lose your american medical license for executing american LAW? … (that’s a bit hard to digest, from a mere “logical” POV) Still, surprised you’d not find a retired MD-nutjob willing to “go to town” … ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/70 "2026-10-01T23:09:30Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > If she ends up being brain damaged, it would be awesome if she sued and won. IANAL - but my gut feeling is that chances are good to sue their asses … they were autorized to do one thing … Kill her … they were not autorized to permanently harm her and cause here brain damage …Their actions did - without a doubt - cause the brain damage (assuming - for discussion’s sake - there is one) - so there is fairly clear causality. (just seems like another logical layer against death-penalty, if you ask me - the same with your institution having to call an ambulance to save Pike’s life while at the same time still trying to kill her) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/71 "2026-10-01T23:09:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The manufacturers helped cause this suffering by forcing prisons to use less effective drugs. 🙄 No. The manufacturers followed their ethical obligations by not supplying drugs designed to kill people. They are in no way at fault for refusing. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/72 "2026-10-01T23:18:56Z")
If only there were people in US prisons with experience in intravenous drug use… ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/73 "2026-10-01T23:22:30Z")
That’s a fair point. Or an independently wealthy doctor nutjob. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/74 "2026-10-01T23:37:32Z")
yep, especially taking into account the number of MDs with a fairly lose “ethics” value system (e.g. Jackson or Chandlers prescription mill doctors, mob/cartell doctors, Jan-6th, whatnot …) … it seems like there is a chance for a pretty penny to be made - hence my surprise that there isn’t A SINGLE ONE in many DECADES. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/75 "2026-10-02T00:06:25Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Because they would lose their license to practice after having done it, > [@steronz](#): > > They’d lose their medical licenses. That _could_ happen, but it never has. > **[Doctors Who Participate in Executions Not Disciplined for Ethical Violations ...](https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2012/may/15/doctors-who-participate-in-executions-not-disciplined-for-ethical-violations/)** > Despite the involvement of doctors in hundreds of U.S. executions, no state medical board has ever disciplined a doctor for participating in an execution. There are several reasons for this. Only seven of the death penalty states have incorporated the AMA standards into their codes of medical ethics. Several states have a statutory mandate requiring the participation of a physician in executions making it virtually impossible to pursue disciplinary or legal action against the physicians who participate in executions. Other states have “shield laws” which explicitly remove medical board disciplinary jurisdiction for physicians participating in executions. > > “There is this perception that many people, including judges, have that because of the AMA ethical code, doctors can’t participate and won’t participate in executions when the reality–and we’ve learned this through the legal cases that have been brought–is that doctors do participate and are willing to participate,” said Ty Alper, associate director of the University of California, Berkley School of Law’s Death Penalty Clinic and author of a January 2010 report published in the Journal of Medical Licensure and Discipline entitled “The Role of State Medical Boards in Regulating Physician Participation in Executions.” > > “The AMA guidelines are just that–guidelines–and not enforceable in most cases,” Alper said. > > Attempts to force medical boards to discipline execution doctors have thus far been unsuccessful. A group of California doctors lost a 1996 bid to force the medical board to discipline physicians who participated in executions. > [@Al128](#): > > so as a MD you’d lose your american medical license for executing american LAW? Probably not, but it is a risk. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/76 "2026-10-02T00:18:06Z")
This is punchline. Superb post. Thank you. We have lots of ways of killing people and animals w near zero possibility of fuckups. Used thousands of times per _day_ all over the country & the world. But for stupid reasons we set all that tech and skill aside for a quasi-medical clownshow charade that’s a mockery of both medicine and of state violence. Shoot them and be done w it. Whether or not to have executions is a separate and contentious debate I’m unwilling to engage w in this thread. But once we are in the execution biz, and some parts of the US most certainly are, for gosh sakes do it skillfully and effectively. Which amounts to humanely. It ain’t difficult unless we make it so. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/77 "2026-10-02T00:26:25Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > It gets me how murder has become so acceptable in society. Yup, so acceptable that we even want the government committing it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/78 "2026-10-02T00:27:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > We have lots of ways of killing people and animals w near zero possibility of fuckups Such as? Since hanging and decapitations both have had screw-ups, often of historical importance. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Shoot them and be done w it. Explain that to **Mikal Mahdi** : Executed by firing squad in South Carolina on April 11, 2025- > **[Man executed by firing squad was conscious for up to a minute after bullets...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/firing-squad-execution-bullets-missed-target-lawyers-south-carolina/)** > > A pathologist hired by death row inmates' attorneys says a South Carolina man executed by firing squad was conscious and likely in extreme pain for up to a minute. and twice in Utah, last time in 1951. Remember, only one gun has a real bullet. Now, to be fair, firing squad executions have a very low rate of going wrong. But there have only been less than 40 since 1890- > **[Botched Executions | Death Penalty Information Center](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/botched-executions)** > > The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the media, policymakers, and the general public… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/79 "2026-10-02T00:29:01Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > I sympathize with the victim’s parents and cannot even imagine the pain the loss of their daughter must have caused them, but even so, the idea of traveling halfway across the country to watch somebody being killed is bizarre. > > As far as bizarre goes, once you lose a child to homicide I think that ship has sailed. You’re in bizzaro land for the rest of your life. Very true, but the fact that funds were raised from the community for the parents to travel to watch the execution means many other people felt the same way. It speaks to a culture of retribution, which is why executions are carried out as semi-public spectacles, albeit with a limited audience. In more primitive times they were less coy about it and just did them in the town square. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507/80 "2026-10-02T00:35:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Remember, only one gun has a real bullet. Not with the South Carolina [protocol](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25549744-firing-squad-protocol/): > Three firing squad members will be behind the wall, with rifles facing the inmate through the opening. The rifles and open portal will not be visible from the witness room. All three rifles will be loaded with live ammunition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tennessee-fails-to-execute-the-execution-of-christa-pike-twice/1033507.md?page=5)