Tennessee stands at a fork in the road, faced with a vexing choice: Should the state stop trying to kill people or just get better at it? Opinion appears sharply divided.
Two botched executions using lethal injection protocols got us here. In May, officials fumbled for an hour without being able to establish an IV line for Tony Carruthers, resulting in a one-year reprieve for his death sentence.
Then last month, Christa Pike somehow managed to – surprise! – survive two injections of supposedly lethal doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital. After a hospital stay, she’s back in prison now, her future health and legal situation very far from clear.
Pike and Carruthers are not the first to experience bungled executions in the U.S. From 1890 to 2010, the Death Penalty Information Center reports, there were 276 failed executions out of 8,776 attempted, a rate of about three out of every 100 resulting in problems of one sort or another.
“Examples of such problems include, among other things, inmates catching fire while being electrocuted, being strangled during hangings (instead of having their necks broken) and being administered the wrong dosages of specific drugs for lethal injections.”
After the Pike episode, Republican candidate for governor Marsha Blackburn offered her considered solution to the situation: Ol’ Sparky.
“Bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly,” she posted on X. “As your governor, I will do just that.”
Not one to mentally struggle over vexing choices, is our Marsha.
As it happens, the electric chair never really left Tennessee. People sentenced to death for crimes committed before Jan. 1, 1999, can choose it instead of lethal injection. It’s not real popular among the Death Row crowd, though, as you might imagine.
But other Tennessee officials are apparently operating under the theory that the means of execution, not the execution itself, is the problem.
The Tennessee Lookout reported that Jack Johnson, Senate majority leader, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton have talked about putting firing squads and hangings back on the table, so to speak.
If the late Sen. Frank Niceley were still among the living and legislating, I might expect an impassioned call for a return to beheadings. He had a fondness for the old ways, did the senator.
And what about burning at the stake? Too much associated with religious martyrdom? I suspect that it was pretty darn reliable, though among the more gruesome methods ever employed.
By the way, did you know none of the victims of the Salem witch trials were burned to death? Nineteen were hanged (14 women, five men), and one man was slowly crushed to death by having heavy weights applied over the course of two days. I kid you not.
The death penalty has always been about punishment, obviously, rehabilitation not really a concern. Nor was a “humane” method necessarily a priority. A website honoring the Scottish independence leader William Wallace, aka Braveheart, explains his death: “Wallace was hanged but will have been cut down while still alive. After this his insides were removed then burned, his head cut off and his body divided into quarters.”
Clear message sent to Braveheart supporters: Beware …
I mention that to get to another death penalty topic, this one playing out on the national stage: The Defense Department says that the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, will be live streamed.
“People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” said Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense.
I don’t think there’s any lack of understanding about the seriousness of killings like those committed by Hasan. Nor do I think the proposal to let the public view the execution serves any purpose other than to feed the MAGA-macho brutality favored by Hegseth and his chest-thumping cohort of bros.
I’ve generally avoided writing about the death penalty over the years. The fact is, despite my liberal attitude on most matters, I’ve supported some executions. But the current administration and the state of Tennessee are making that very hard to do these days.
Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville. He can be reached at jrogink@gmail.com.