In capital punishment, failure is a feature

The piece surveys the current state of U.S. capital punishment: 27 states plus the federal government retain it, five states (including Tennessee) have paused it, and Virginia abolished it outright in 2021, with its old electric chair now sitting in a museum storage room.

It centers on Tennessee's September 30 attempt to execute Christa Gail Pike with two doses of pentobarbital; she survived and was hospitalized by the same state that tried to kill her. Earlier in May, Tennessee abandoned an attempt to execute Tony Carruthers when staff could not establish IV access, prompting Gov. Bill Lee to halt further executions and order a review.

The author cites a Columbia University study finding serious, reversible error in 68% of capital judgments from 1973-1995, and a scholar's finding that lethal injection has a 7.3% botch rate, higher than hanging or electrocution. The piece notes Alabama and four other states have turned to nitrogen gas as an alternative, with its own reported problems including prolonged deaths and witness risk.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.