The state's mismanagement of death row cases is cruel and inhumane. What happened Wednesday night was not an isolated failure. It is a pattern. In 2022, the state halted the execution of Oscar Smith after admitting its lethal injection drugs had not been properly tested. In May, executioners spent more than an hour trying and failing to place an IV in Tony Carruthers. Now Christa Pike has survived two doses of pentobarbital, something death penalty experts say has never happened before.

The Department of Correction says it followed every step of its protocol. If that is true, then the protocol itself is a problem.

The governor's third-party review is a start, but it is no substitute for oversight. It is time for the General Assembly to exercise its oversight function over the executive branch. We will gladly work with the majority party in the interest of transparency and accountability. This should never happen again.

This pattern of mismanagement is more proof that the death penalty is a failed policy. It is an abuse of state power to willingly take a life. Its cost outpaces its value and it has never been proven to deter capital crime.