Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee lawmaker, called for the reinstatement of the electric chair to enforce the death penalty on criminals considered otherwise dangerous in the state.
The Republican’s proposal arises the day after Christa Gail Pike, a woman sentenced to death for committing a brutal murder in her adolescence, managed to survive two lethal injections.
The failed execution prompted the woman to be sentenced to death afterwards to a health center, a situation that caused indignation among the relatives of the person she murdered 31 years ago.
Marsha Blackburn — who is campaigning as a candidate to govern Tennessee — has used social media to promote the reintroduction of the electric chair for executions.
“While a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed must be carried out, the answer is simple: reinstate the electric chair and make justice to these victims promptly. As your governor, I will do exactly that,” he said.
The answer is simple: Bring back the electric chair. pic.twitter.com/w1aOcKYC0r
In contrast, Jerri Green, mayor of Memphis City and also candidate for governor, but representing the Democratic Party, opposes using the electric chair again as an execution method by considering that method as one of the most cruel and unnecessary in today’s society.
“There is a lack of transparency around drug detection tests, as well as qualified and ethical staff; but the truth is that the death penalty has always been inhuman, costly and discriminatory. And Marsha Blackburn wants to reinstate one of the most cruel forms of capital punishment: the electric chair,” she said.
In fact, Green proposed to be a life advocate, which could mean that, in case she became a state leader, she could push some order to suspend the death penalty.
“If we say we are in favor of life, that means we must be against the death penalty,” he said.
Currently, the states where, every year, more prisoners are executed are Texas, Florida and California. However, the state of the “Solitary Star” is where more capital punishments have been recorded since 1976, when the death penalty was restored, since its records exceed more than 600 cases.
