One in three Americans back second execution attempt after failed one, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - One-third of Americans think the government should try a second time to put a convicted criminal to death if a first execution attempt fails, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee.

The four-day poll, completed on Monday, showed 39% of respondents thought the government should instead allow convicts to serve life in prison following a failed execution, while 26% were not sure which was a better approach.

The nationwide survey found minority public support for trying again to execute inmates who survive execution attempts, a question Tennessee now faces after Christa Pike, 50, survived two lethal injection attempts last month in Nashville.

The convicted murderer was taken to a hospital unconscious following the attempted execution, critically ill and with severe arm injuries after two syringes of the caustic barbiturate pentobarbital failed to kill her, marking Tennessee’s second botched lethal injection this year. She did not regain consciousness until five days later.

Most countries around the world, along with 23 US states, have abolished capital punishment. Those US states that still impose it have struggled in recent years to obtain execution drugs, and some have considered other methods, including firing squads.

A slight majority of Americans—55%—continue to support capital punishment for people convicted of the most serious crimes, down from 63% who said in a 2017 Reuters/Ipsos poll that they supported the policy. Some 31% of respondents in the latest poll said they opposed the death penalty, while 13% either did not know or did not answer the question.

The issue has taken on new significance as courts consider whether states can make a second execution attempt after a failed one.

The US Supreme Court recently allowed a state to proceed with scheduling a second execution date after a failed attempt. Kenneth Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, survived a trip to Alabama’s execution chamber in 2022 after prison officials failed to set up intravenous lines. But Alabama succeeded on its second try in 2024 with a new method of suffocation using nitrogen gas.

OPPOSITION TO LIVESTREAMING EXECUTIONS

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently floated the prospect of the first-ever livestream of a US execution, the planned death by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army major who killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood military base.

Following widespread criticism—including from Republican lawmakers—President Donald Trump canceled the livestream plans, though officials still intend to carry out the execution on December 3.

Some 46% of Americans, including 29% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans, said it was appropriate to execute Hasan by firing squad. But 71% of people surveyed, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans, said showing executions to the public on television or the internet was inappropriate.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online and nationwide, gathering responses from 1,679 US adults. It had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Source: Reuters, Jonathan Allen and Jason Lange, October 20, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshis over 'immoral act' inside mosque

Saudi Arabia has carried out the death penalty on two Bangladeshi nationals in Mecca. The country's Interior Ministry announced this in a statement on Wednesday. According to the report, they were sentenced over allegations of involvement in immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. The information was reported by Ajel News, citing the Saudi Interior Ministry's statement. The two Bangladeshis executed were a man and a woman, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sithi Akhter. The “immoral acts” referred to illicit heterosexual intercourse, not homosexual activity.

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Christa Pike's Survival Wasn't a Miracle. That's What Should Scare Us.

What happened in Tennessee's execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine Christa Pike is awake. A week after Tennessee strapped her to a gurney and gave her two doses of pentobarbital , she is off the ventilator and speaking from a hospital bed, still shackled to it. Her lawyers call her recovery " medically unprecedented. " Legal scholars say she is the first person in American history to survive a lethal injection after the drug was actually given. I understand the impulse to make such claims. I consulted for Pike's legal team, but I have also spent three decades in operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), and I want to resist the word "unprecedented" and the word "miracle" that hovers just behind it.

Florida Set to Execute Man Who Said He Killed to Reach Death Row, Challenging Misconception that Death Penalty Deters Crime

Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday, October 13, at Florida State Prison. His execution remains scheduled despite the withdrawal of William Lee Thompson’s death warrant, which had called for a 2nd execution that evening. If completed, this will be Florida’s 17th execution of 2026. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) and partners will be holding a series of vigils and demonstrations across the state.

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As Christa Pike returns to death row after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, several questions remain about her case and what comes next. Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital and moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her attorneys said on Saturday. She was hospitalized after surviving 2 doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital as Tennessee attempted to execute her on September 30. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps training program in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 18 at the time.

Saudi Arabia executes woman, 'terrorists', 'indecent' couple, and juvenile offenders

Saudi Arabia carried out a series of executions in mid-October, including that of a woman convicted of killing her mother and attempting to kill her sister, alongside five men in the Eastern Province. Official statements described the five as terrorists; human rights groups described them as political prisoners sentenced under discretionary (ta’zir) penalties, one of whom was a child at the time of the alleged acts. The cases illustrate the kingdom’s continued use of the death penalty under Sharia, its stated commitment to public order and justice, and criticism from human rights organizations over the scope of capital punishment.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

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