When the state kills, how it does so should not look like an outpatient procedure. Therein lies an irony: The more the state attempts to medicalize killing, the more it risks unsuccessful and inefficient executions, and the more it obscures the full weight of what retributive wrath is meant to accomplish and signify.
We are seeing this in real time this week in Tennessee with the botched execution of Christa Pike. The particulars of the attempted execution of Pike are grisly. News reports indicate that the method of execution — lethal injection — left her breathing after two doses of pentobarbital. This was Tennessee’s second execution failure within the last five months. Pike was rushed to the hospital, where her condition remains critical. Soon after the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that Tennessee would put a halt to further executions in 2026 until a third party could review the execution procedures.
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