Hi Friends,

A cruel form of torture involves telling someone you are going to kill them, staging the execution, and then not following through.

The state of Tennessee just did this to Christa Pike and physically tortured her for a long time while attempting unsuccessfully to kill her by lethal injection.

Some months back, it was Tony Caruthers. Tennessee strapped him down. It jabbed him in the arms, shoulders, feet, chest, and neck in a failed attempt to inject him with deadly poison. Tony moaned in pain as his blood pooled on the floor.

This is the "humane" death penalty. More people object to electric chairs, firing squads, and nooses than to lethal injection.

Tony is mentally ill, was tried with no lawyer representing him, had no physical evidence presented against him, has asked without success to have DNA and fingerprint evidence tested, and was convicted on the word of an informant who later recanted.

Tennessee still plans to kill Tony, but is going to wait a year. Christa may yet die from what's been done to her or from a new attempt at killing her.

While 23 states have -- like most of the rest of the world -- abolished the death penalty, your state has not.

Email your state legislators and governor here.

Do so more than once, and ask others to do the same!

Here is an email aimed at persuading your elected officials. You can edit it with your own words:

As your constituent, I urge you to move forward right away on formally abolishing the death penalty in our state, as has already been done in so many other states.

The evidence shows no deterrent effect from the death penalty.[1]

The death penalty, even if never imposed, is used by prosecutors to bully people — some of them innocent of any crime — into plea agreements.[2]

Since 1973, over 200 people have been exonerated and removed from death row in the United States. An unknown number of innocent people have been executed.[3]

Use of the death penalty is persistently and significantly racially biased.[4]

The financial cost of exhausting appeals and executing someone far outstrips the cost of prison, which far outstrips the cost of a top-quality education.

Much of the world and the world’s governments condemn the death penalty as a gross violation of human rights. For this reason, the U.S. government is sometimes unable to extradite people charged with crimes. For the same reason, the U.S. government struggles in efforts to recommend better human rights practices to other nations.

1. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/deterrence
2. https://olemiss.edu/news/2024/01/death-penalty-bargaining/
3. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence
4. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-eberhardt-bias-death-penalty-20190321-story.html

Send your email.

This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $12 now.

Thanks for all you do!

In Solidarity,
The RootsAction Team

Background:

>> New York Times: "Tennessee Inmate in Critical Condition After ‘Torturous’ Botched Execution, Lawyer Says"
>> The Guardian: "Tennessee governor orders stay of execution after doctor can’t find vein"
>> New York Times: "The Death Penalty Is Even More Horrifying Than You Think"

RootsAction.org