Why Are We So Bad at Executing People?

2026-10-05 · letter vlog · Hank · 8:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

Prompted by Tennessee's botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, Hank argues that US states botch executions (about 7% of lethal injections) because competent doctors, drug makers and suppliers refuse to take part, which shows society no longer really wants executions; he opposes the death penalty because innocent people have been executed.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting and Pizzamas framing; most US states do not execute people, from Michigan's 1847 abolition to Tennessee's new moratorium

★ Hank says he waffled on making this video because Pizzamas is a time for good times, but the brothers have always made things they think are helpful and care about. — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas
★★ Hank says most of the US does not execute people: 37 of the 50 states have executed no one in the past five years. — 00:00:00 · United States
★★ Hank says most of those states have banned executions, some have moratoriums and others just rarely execute; they include blue and red states from Alaska to New York to West Virginia. — 00:00:29
★★ Hank says Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, in 1847, and the first English-speaking government ever to do so. — 00:00:29
★★★ Hank says the governor of Tennessee placed a temporary moratorium on executions last week (week of 28 September 2026) because the state appears unable to carry them out competently. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Why killing people should seem easy, the Christa Pike execution attempt, and Hank's on-record opposition because innocent people have been executed

★★★ Hank notes that life is fragile, overdoses kill people and animals are euthanized with rare complications, yet the many reasons executions fail mostly boil down to incompetence, whose cause he thinks is unavoidable now. — 00:00:58
★★ Hank says Tennessee last week (week of 28 September 2026) tried to execute 50-year-old Krista Pike, who with her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate when she was 18, in 1995. — 00:01:27
★★★ Hank goes on record that he does not think governments should execute people. — 00:01:27
★★★ Hank's bedrock argument against executions: we know innocent people have been executed, and since that will always be possible, we should not execute people. — 00:01:56
★★ Hank says lethal injection is how the US executes most people, so he focuses on it, though other methods can also be botched. — 00:01:56 · United States

00:02:26 — Five ways a lethal injection goes wrong: IV placement, IV failure, wrong drugs, atypical physiology, inconsistent protocols

★★ Hank says the first failure is that whoever places the IV cannot do it, because of the prisoner's physiology, lack of competence or bad luck; some procedures need two veins. — 00:02:26
★★ Hank says an IV placed incorrectly or slipping out puts the drug into surrounding tissue, which can be very painful, so the person may not die or die after prolonged suffering. — 00:02:26
★★ Hank says sometimes the wrong drug or formulation has been injected, so the person survives or dies after much suffering and confusion. — 00:03:24
★★ Hank says, without evidence for humans, that a person might not respond typically to the drugs; this is very rare but happens in veterinary euthanasia. (hedged) — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — The biggest reason: competent professionals (AMA, anesthesiologists, drug makers) refuse to take part, while most voters still want executions

★★ Hank says there is surprisingly little consistency between states in which drugs are used, and procedures and drugs keep changing. — 00:03:53
★★★ Hank says the biggest reason executions keep being botched, not a scientific claim but one he thinks is well grounded, is that people good at their jobs don't want to help states execute people. — 00:03:53
★★ Hank says the American Medical Association says doctors should not participate in executions, though some do. — 00:04:19 · United States
★★ Hank says the American Board of Anesthesiology, the most relevant profession, says participating in an execution can cost a physician their board certification. — 00:04:19 · United States
★★ Hank says it is good that doctors swear not to intentionally cause harm, the bare minimum for their job, which means most doctors will not take part in executions. — 00:04:49
★★ Hank says the doctor assisting Pike's execution was not an anesthesiologist and had taken part in an earlier botched execution, trying for nearly an hour to place an IV, then a central line he hadn't done in over a decade. — 00:04:49
★★ Hank calls that a pretty obvious sign of incompetence. — 00:05:18
★★ Hank says drug makers and many medical suppliers will not sell drugs for executions, and governments cannot acquire them illegally, reducing access to some drugs and the quality of others. — 00:05:18
★★★ Hank feels the incompetence stems from individuals, who have the right to choose, refusing to participate because they cannot tolerate taking part in killing a person. — 00:05:47
★★ Hank says most US voters, though the lowest share in around 50 years, want to keep the state's ability to kill people, while most medical experts refuse to take part. — 00:05:47 · United States
★★★ Hank says states are legally compelled to execute while competent people refuse to take part, producing very high incompetence in designing and carrying out execution protocols. — 00:06:16
★★★ Hank argues we cannot be good at things no one wants to look at: when everyone approves something but turns their back on it, incompetence and corruption almost always follow. — 00:06:16

“We cannot be good at things that no one wants to look at.”

00:06:45 — We should stop executing people; the failure rate shows society does not really want to, and death sentences and executions are declining; sign-off

★★ Hank says supporting something as long as one personally need not do it or think about it is dangerous, and executions are a particularly extreme case. — 00:06:45
★★★ Hank says the simple solution is to stop executing people, which he would favour even if executions were perfect, because innocent people may always be executed. — 00:06:45
★★★ Hank argues that being so bad at executions is not just a reason to stop but shows a deep lack of enthusiasm: if society really wanted to do it, it would be good at it. — 00:07:15
★★ Hank says lethal injection has about a 7% failure rate, far above euthanasia of dogs or end-of-life therapies for suffering people. — 00:07:15
★★ Hank says far fewer people are sentenced to death than at the peak and fewer are executed; the trend holds overall though not in every state. — 00:07:41
★★★ Hank thinks the decline happens because, though we yearn for justice when people do monstrous things, seeing the system at work shows it fails to give us what we want. — 00:08:10

In the description and comments

★★ The description says Hank understands that many see killing a killer as honouring life, but thinks that has always been an ugly lie, and the incompetence shows society no longer believes it. — video description
★★ The description cites Gallup's 2025 poll: 52% of US adults supported the death penalty for murder, the lowest support since 1972. — video description
★ The description cites Joe Arridy's posthumous pardon as an example of people sentenced to death and later exonerated. — video description
- a number in question (doubtful): "201" — check against the recording

Threads in this video

first on record · Should governments execute people? — Hank goes on record that he does not think governments should execute people. (00:01:27)

Mentioned

Central: capital punishment · Christa Pike · lethal injection · Tennessee

Also: People: Bill Lee · Mark Fowler

Projects: Pizzamas

Organizations: American Board of Anesthesiology · American Medical Association

Concepts: animal euthanasia · Drug overdose · intravenous therapy · justice · medical ethics · wrongful execution

Places: Alaska · Michigan · New York (state) · United States · West Virginia

Only in the description or credits: Gallup · Joe Arridy · Pfizer

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