For generations, California has understood itself as a place willing to wrestle with hard questions, especially when human dignity is at stake. By commuting all of California’s death sentences to life imprisonment, Gov. Gavin Newsom has shown he is unafraid…
‘Eye for Eye’ for execution teams, too?
On Sept. 30, 50 year-old Christa Pike experienced a failed execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn. Seven or more needles were inserted into her veins with such force that one was bent sideways inside a vein, causing…
In rare move, DeSantis cancels an execution
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for the first in his two-term administration, withdrew the death warrant of an inmate who had been scheduled to die by lethal injection earlier this month. Groups such as Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty,…
When justice becomes a spectacle
When did killing someone become a measure of justice? And when did watching someone die become entertainment? Let’s begin with Christa Pike. On Sept. 30, the state of Tennessee attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection. She was administered two…
Catholic and Methodist leaders condemn livestreamed firing squad
Roman Catholic and United Methodist leaders have joined the condemnation of Pete Hegseth’s planned livestreamed execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. Any Catholics assigned to the firing squad are “obliged” to request to be excused from this action, which is “contrary…
What kind of people are we becoming?
The following comments were given by the author on Saturday, Oct. 10, at a Dallas rally against the death penalty. I speak today as a Christian, mindful of the ancient conviction expressed in Genesis that every human being is…
The state doesn’t need my eyes
On what must have been a dark day in the first century, leaders of the Roman Empire began loading exotic animals into crates. Lions, leopards and crocodiles were led down ancient routes. Via Salaria, the “Salt Road,” and Via Latina…
Pete Hegseth’s gospel of violence
The last widely recognized public execution in the United States took place on Aug. 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Ky. Rainey Bethea, a 22-year-old Black man, was hanged before an estimated crowd of 20,000 people. Bethea had been accused of raping…
After botched execution, Christa Pike is alive and talking
Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike was thought to be on the brink of death in a Nashville hospital when the 50-year-old’s eyes suddenly popped open, one of her lawyers said Oct. 7. “Monday night it was our understanding that Christa…
After failed execution in Tennessee, more questions remain
Christa Pike remained unconscious and under guard in a Nashville hospital days after a botched lethal injection that led to the resignation of the state’s top corrections official. Two rounds of pentobarbital over a two-hour period could not kill the…
Christa Pike and the moral case for ending the death penalty
When I worked in death-penalty communications, words such as “execution,” “death warrant,” “clemency” and “lethal injection” began to sound like the ordinary vocabulary of public policy. There is nothing ordinary about what those words mean. Last week’s failed execution of…
‘Bring back the electric chair,’ Tennessee GOP candidate urges after botched execution
Christa Pike remained in critical condition in a Tennessee hospital Oct. 1 after surviving two execution attempts and numerous agonizing efforts to insert IVs during her failed lethal injection the day before. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee responded by announcing…