"While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly."
Page F4From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 6 October 2026
Tennessee's next governor pledges a review of the botched execution, then answers it in the same breath.
As it ran on the front
The fifth happened on his watch here. On September 30, Christa Pike received a double dose of the lethal injection drug and was still alive, and snoring, forty minutes later. Governor Bill Lee called the result "deeply disturbing," suspended executions across the state, and ordered an independent inquiry into what went wrong. On October 3 Strada said he would leave the department next month, with five botched executions now counted against him across two states since 2022.
The same sentence invoked "justice for these victims," as if a verdict already served does not need a review to tell it why. A review is the kind of document that takes longer to finish than it takes to announce. The count of what failed in the September 30 execution is not closed. The suspension Lee ordered on October 2 carries no public end date. The department itself has no commissioner lined up to replace the one leaving next month. The verdict showed up ahead of all three.…
…(cont) Run the two claims the way this desk runs any filing — against each other, not against the speech that introduced them. One column says the process failed and the state doesn't yet know why. The other column says the fix was already picked before the first column opened. Those two entries don't reconcile, hon. A review whose conclusion predates its own paperwork isn't a review; it's a procurement decision dressed in the language of patience, and the dressing is the only part of this that resembles caution. Tennessee spent four years finding out, the hard way, what Arizona's record on Strada already said. The lesson available this week is the same one: the file that should have stopped a decision instead became the occasion for announcing it twice, once with a hospital at the end of it and once with a campaign behind it.
“They hire the guy with four botched executions already on his resume, let him run a fifth one that leaves a woman alive and snoring for forty minutes, and before the resignation letter's even dry the next guy in line has already picked the replacement machine. That's not a review, that's a press release with a comment period bolted on so it looks like due process. Christa Pike's the one who found out what "thorough" means in this state.”
“Look, ordering a thorough review is exactly what responsible leadership looks like — you don't just throw out the process because one injection ran long, forty minutes, that's not even — okay, that is a long time. And the electric chair's been on the books in this state for decades, nobody's inventing anything here, we're just — we're just pre-announcing the conclusion ahead of the evidence, which, huh, when I say it out loud like that — did I say that? That doesn't sound like me.”
Earlier in this story
- Tennessee's botched execution of one woman postpones a man's lethal injection set for December. By Ruth · the midnight edition, 6 October 2026
- Pentagon revives firing squad as a historic first, the same week lethal injection needed forty minutes to fail. By Lou · the midnight edition, 6 October 2026
- Pentagon approves firing squad days after the drug meant to kill Christa Pike left her alive forty minutes. By Lou · the late evening edition, 5 October 2026
- Gary Wayne Sutton's execution is on hold because Tennessee's execution team keeps failing, not because his case changed. By Ruth · the early evening edition, 5 October 2026
- CEOs sign accord naming AI 'Super Intelligence,' then refuse to call it that when asked By Mitch · the sunrise edition, 4 October 2026
- Tennessee hired a commissioner with four botched executions, got a fifth, ordered its first review. By Ruth · the sunrise edition, 4 October 2026
The receipts
The botched lethal injection of Christa Pike led to the halting of all scheduled executions in the state.
The prison commissioner in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned over the failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee has said.
United Nations human rights experts on Thursday joined the growing chorus of people around the world outraged by Tennessee's two botched attempts to execute Christa Pike and called on the state to refrain from trying again to kill the 50-year-old woman. After a last-minute legal battle , the US Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to execute…
Christa Pike was taken to a hospital after the failed attempts to put her to death in Tennessee on Wednesday night. Her condition was not known and officials have not said how she survived the deadly doses of pentobarbital.
Three-quarters of nations have rightly abolished capital punishment in law or practice, but killing by the state has surged in the US What is the kindest way to kill? That’s the question being asked once more following Tennessee’s failed attempts to execute Christa Pike for the brutal murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was…
Medicalizing and sanitizing capital punishment erase the deterrence it is supposed to create.
This represents the second failed attempt at an execution via lethal injection in Tennessee this year alone.
“I’ve never seen anything like what we saw Wednesday night,” said one reporter who witnessed the execution attempt.
· Outgoing prison chief in Christa Pike case oversaw five ‘botched’ executions, lawyers say from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Tennessee suspends executions as Christa Pike’s lawyer says failed lethal injection leaves her in critical condition from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Tennessee Corrections commissioner resigns days after failed Christa Pike execution from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Tennessee Prison Chief Was Hired Despite a Trail of Troubled Executions from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Pike's botched execution renews death penalty scrutiny from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· After failed execution, health workers say Tennessee's method flouts medical ethics from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court Allows Execution of Christa Pike, Tennessee’s Lone Woman on Death Row from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Federal court halts Christa Pike's execution from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· White House defends media outlet bans, now citing 'professionalism' standards from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Sunday Shows Preview: Trump bans 3 media outlets from White House; Parties make final cases as midterms approach from the morgue, 19 Sep 2026
· Vance defends White House media ban: ‘Politico is as anti-Trump as Breitbart was anti-Obama or anti-Biden’ from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Vance defends Trump's media ban as 'totally appropriate' from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Bill Clinton: 'There were lots of times when I wanted to ban the White House press corps' from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike's failed execution, governor says from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Federal Appellate Court Halts Tennessee's Planned Execution of Christa Pike from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court declines Christa Pike's clemency appeal, with Tennessee set to execute first woman in 200 years from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike to go forward from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Tennessee court makes last minute move to temporarily halt Christa Pike's execution from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· DOJ petitions judge to reinstate White House ban on CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Trump White House Restores Access to Politico, MS NOW, CNN Reporters Hours After Judge's Order from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Judge orders White House to restore media access temporarily for blocked outlets from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters regain entry to White House from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Tennessee prison system head to resign after failed Christa Pike execution from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Tennessee Prison Commissioner Resigns Days After Failed Execution from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Tennessee prison chief resigns after Christa Pike’s botched execution from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike’s Tennessee execution halted by court an hour before it was scheduled from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Christa Pike thought her arm would ‘burst open’ during botched Tennessee execution: court docs from the morgue, 3 Oct 2026
· Death row inmate unconscious on ventilator after botched execution for teen’s killing: attorneys from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike remains unconscious and on ventilator after failed execution in Tennessee from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike unconscious and intubated after failed execution, lawyers say from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike Was Unconscious and on Ventilator After Execution Attempt from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· How legislatures and the courts sabotage the death penalty from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Tennessee inmate survived two lethal injections, her lawyer says in motion to halt execution from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Tennessee Attempted to Execute a Sexual Assault Victim from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026
· Tennessee prepares to execute the first woman in over 200 years from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Questions emerge after Christa Pike's botched execution from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Tennessee executed Christa Pike by the book. She survived from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike in critical condition after failed execution attempts: Lawyer from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike left in ‘critical condition’ as Tennessee halts all executions from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike’s botched lethal injection takes focus off victim, jeopardizes execution: former police chief from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· States should not blindly Alabama's use of execution by nitrogen from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Lawyers, experts urge Tennessee governor to commute Christa Pike’s sentence after botched execution from the morgue, 2 Oct 2026
· Botched execution of death row inmate from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Legal expert on what could happen after botched execution of Christa Pike from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· After Failed Attempt to Execute Christa Pike, Tennessee Pauses a Planned Execution from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Lone woman death row inmate Christa Pike says she’s ‘at peace’ ahead of execution — as Tennessee gov. denies last-ditch bid for clemency from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Judge restores Seattle US attorney who Trump fired after court appointment from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Judge rejects Trump administration arguments for withholding boat strike justification memo from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Fourth Circuit worried Trump’s US attorney appointments unlawfully cut out Senate from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Judge blocks Trump executive order banning ‘birth tourism’ from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Tennessee Pauses Executions After a Botched Lethal Injection from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· The Memo: Tennessee debacle revives bitter debate over death penalty from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· The Supreme Court of the United States rules 5–4 to lift the block on four federal executions scheduled for July and August. Convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, whose execution was scheduled for the from the morgue, 14 Jul 2020
· The Supreme Court of the United States refuses to vacate a stay of execution issued by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Arkansas's highest court has also put on hold the execution of another inmate, Bruce from the morgue, 18 Apr 2017
· Judge blocks Trump's firing of top federal prosecutor in Seattle from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Judge reinstates Washington state US attorney fired by Trump from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· CNN, MS Now, and Politico ask judge to extend order pausing Trump’s ban from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Trump dumbfounded on why death row inmate Christa Pike couldn’t be executed: ‘Should be easy to do’ from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Trump administration asks Supreme Court to OK transgender inmate policy from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Infamous Murderer ‘Critically Ill’ After Surviving Two Botched Lethal Injections: REPORT from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Blackburn calls on TN to 'bring back' electric chair after botched Christa Pike execution from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Mom of Christa Pike’s victim has furious response to watching failed execution: ‘They f–ked up’ from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· What to know about pentobarbital after death row inmate survives 2 lethal injection doses from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Am I Lying to Myself About the Death Penalty? from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· United States district court judge Jeremy Fogel imposes a moratorium on lethal injections in California stating that they are unconstitutional. In an unrelated incident, the Governor of Florida Jeb Bu from the morgue, 15 Dec 2006
· John Marek becomes the 68th death row inmate in the state of Florida, United States to be executed by lethal injection since the death sentence was re-instated in 1979.(Miami Herald) from the morgue, 19 Aug 2009
· U.S. President Joe Biden commutes the death sentences of 37 out of the 44 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. The exceptions are Dylann Roof, Robert Gregory Bowers, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, from the morgue, 23 Dec 2024
· The death penalty: 50 years after reinstatement from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
· After nitrogen execution blocked, Alabama inmate to die by lethal injection from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
· Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Pike survives 2 lethal injection attempts from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Christa Pike's failed execution follows another in Tennessee this year from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· US Supreme Court clears way for Tennessee woman's imminent execution from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.