Opinion · October 25, 2026
Tennessee has a serious question about the state’s ability to carry out executions. Marsha Blackburn has offered an answer that sounds engineered for a bumper sticker: bring back the electric chair. Apparently the solution to a government failure is a more intimidating appliance.
The proposal came before the answers
WPLN reported October 1 that Blackburn called for electrocution after the September 30 lethal-injection attempt on Christa Pike was halted. Governor Bill Lee ordered an outside review and paused executions for the rest of the year. Blackburn supported reviewing the process while promising the chair; Jerri Green said she would extend the moratorium.
That is the early-October record, not a new execution announcement today. It remains a revealing contrast in this governor’s race. One response begins by establishing what went wrong. The other already has its preferred dramatic ending.
Competence is not a weakness
You can believe in punishment and still demand that the state account for failure before asking for more power. The death penalty is the most irreversible thing a government can do. Treating procedural caution as softness is an appalling way to audition for control of that machinery.
Victims’ families deserve more than politicians borrowing their pain to decorate a toughness contest. A promise to move faster does not explain who will be accountable, how independent scrutiny will work or why citizens should trust the next decision. Those are governing questions. A campaign slogan cannot answer them.
This is why the choice matters
Our preference for Green is no secret. Her willingness to maintain a pause is a better starting point than Blackburn’s execution-stage swagger. That does not settle every argument over criminal justice. It establishes that a catastrophic state failure deserves investigation before a candidate starts shopping for a switch.
Tennessee needs a governor who can distinguish seriousness from theatrical severity. If the pitch is that government has failed and therefore needs to act more aggressively before the findings arrive, the voters should be the ones pulling the plug. Read our Jerri Green endorsement.
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