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Christa Pike -where does she stand legally?

734 replies

mids2019 · 01/10/2026 06:39

Just this really. Christ a is obviously being giving life saving treatment at hospital but where does she now stand legally. I suppose she probably has irreversible brain damage so will this not allow a second execution to take place? Is this a cruel and unusual punishment?

[Note from MNHQ - edited your title, OP]

OP posts:
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Xcellently · 01/10/2026 13:32

Godsavessobelieve · 01/10/2026 11:57

I doubt they will try another execution. She will probably just get a life sentence. They legally have so many reasons to appeal and future execution orders it’s ridiculous. Chances are she will have severe brain injuries from it too. If she becomes considered to have a severe mental disability then she can not legally be executed anymore. It’s a violation of her 8th amendment. What makes this whole situation even more sickening was Christa Pike asked to be executed be hanging due to the fact that she has a disorder causing her veins to be abnormally small and Tennessee state Supreme Court Denied her request. Then they asked for the lethal injection to be administered through a catheter because they were worried that the injection would fail because of her medical disorder and they denied that request too. The fact that over 35% of lethal injections fail and they continue to allow it is absolutely disgusting. She wasn’t fight the fact she deserved to be executed, she was fighting the fact it was lethal injection. The fact she offered other options for administering the drug due to a disorder with her veins and they denied it and denied her request to be executed by hanging, shows how careless and reckless of a legal system they have in Tennessee and they should have to answer for being negligent and incompetent. The also had another fail lethal injection earlier this year with another prison. Then on top of that they used the same doctor that botched the first one this year. They failed miserably in so many ways and she wasn’t trying to stop them, she didn’t want this to happen and not one of them cared. Every one of them should be removed from the district judges to the judges in there state Supreme Court, along with their governor. There are so many other and more humane was to carry out these sentences, there is no reason for lethal injection to be continually used. But it’s about the financial saving since it’s one of the cheapest ways to carry out the sentence they continue to use it even though there is a trail of proof that it fails. There 106 botched lethal injections since 1985. 1,400 total executions have been carried out since 1985 too, But due to costs and not wanting to traumatize witnesses and staff most have been lethal injections. They have, the electric chair, hanging, firing squad, gas chamber, nitrogen hypoxia available as options and they are nearly 100% effective. There was no reason Christa pike should have gone through what she did, they should all be ashamed of themselves, they failed her, the legal system, everyone involved they failed, including failing Christas victim and the victim’s family, who said in their statement since the botched execution that nothing was done correctly, that it was a mess, how they shouldn’t have even administered the lethal drugs until the drugs to make her fall asleep had kicked in. Instead they allowed her to suffer in agony and she was awake, screaming in pain. Her victims mom said she deserved to be put to death but didn’t deserve what they put her through. I pray the lord watches over those people who had to watch that, that he watches over Christa pike, and either protects her if she survives and gets returned to prison but more likely a state hospital where she will probably suffer till she dies of old age. Or please allow her suffering to end and allow her to pass on to be judged by him. Everyone who failed to allow Christa to die and chose to ignore and deny any other way that was requested by her will be judged by our lord also. She accepted death, she just didn’t want to go through the agony of a botched execution. She knew it would fail and medically proved it, something they chose to ignore. They are just as guilty as she is, except they don’t have to answer for their mistakes and choices. At least Christa admitted she was wrong in her actions, admitted guilt, showed remorse, agreed she deserves to die. She stated and I quote “, I’m not afraid to die. It’s the process that scares me”. After everything that happened surrounding her failed execution and what she had endured, maybe we should put her in our prayers and let the lord decide her future and I pray he welcomes her into his arms and ends her suffering. Then may he judge her, for he will be just and fair. She will receive the sentence she deserves. I promise he will show more empathy, compassion, forgiveness and kindness to her then she was given by in Tennessee tonight.

I’m sure you’re making some valid points but I stopped reading. If you can possibly put some paragraph spacing in, it would make for easier reading.

HelpMyBlackLabradorVotesReform · 01/10/2026 13:34

I think Rupert Lowes supporters would be buying popcorn ready to watch public executions!

HelpMyBlackLabradorVotesReform · 01/10/2026 13:36

Xcellently · 01/10/2026 13:32

I’m sure you’re making some valid points but I stopped reading. If you can possibly put some paragraph spacing in, it would make for easier reading.

Fucking hell - using a thread about a bodged execution to score cheap points on grammar is pretty low.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

ChubbyCheeksCharlie · 01/10/2026 13:36

KatiePricesKnickers · 01/10/2026 07:13

Whatever happened to a firing squad or hanging?

Apparently she requested an all female firing squad.
Injections often go wrong because medical professionals, including vets, are prohibited from administering them, so it's one of the prison officers. That's what I read, anyway.

Waitingfordoggo · 01/10/2026 13:39

EmmaOfNormandy · 01/10/2026 11:42

When Michael Portillo (who was also a death penalty advocate, until he researched it) presented Horizon "How To Kill A Human" nitrogen asphyxiation was found to be reliable and humane. However it was rejected in the US as too painless.

Speaks volumes, really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7183957.stm

The gas chamber (using nitrogen gas) has now been adopted by several states as their ‘back up’ option (because of the difficulties in obtaining the relevant chemicals for lethal injection). So there have been recent executions using gas chambers, and some witnesses to some of these executions have reported seeing suffering and prolonged death.

KatiePricesKnickers · 01/10/2026 13:39

HelpMyBlackLabradorVotesReform · 01/10/2026 13:36

Fucking hell - using a thread about a bodged execution to score cheap points on grammar is pretty low.

Standards must be maintained.

ThatCyanCat · 01/10/2026 13:41

Waitingfordoggo · 01/10/2026 13:39

The gas chamber (using nitrogen gas) has now been adopted by several states as their ‘back up’ option (because of the difficulties in obtaining the relevant chemicals for lethal injection). So there have been recent executions using gas chambers, and some witnesses to some of these executions have reported seeing suffering and prolonged death.

Isn't that death by suffocation? There's no way that's humane.

qazxc · 01/10/2026 13:42

What is likely to happen will depend on her state of health.
You aren't meant to carry out the death penalty on someone who isn't compos mentis. So if there are ongoing issues, say for example with brain damage, it may be an avenue for legal team to pursue and try to get her sentence commutted to life without parole. This has happened to other inmates on death row with mental troubles, dementia or very low IQs. If, for example, she no longer understands why she is being executed, that would fall under the eight amendment and make it cruel and unusual punishment.
There was another botched execution (Tony Carruthers) in Tennessee as well. For that inmate, he got a one year stay and a potential execution date in 2027.
There are likely to be ramifications though of 2 executions going wrong, such as reviewing the execution method or maybe the drug companies not wanting their products used for this purpose anymore.

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 13:42

dustabsorber · 01/10/2026 12:05

Today in the 700 prisoners are being released early. Is anyone considering their victims? Most of them will be going straight back into crime.

Heard on the news that the monitoring and follow up of the released prisoners would be the most comprehensive and strict in UK legal history. Not holding my breath to be honest.

Xcellently · 01/10/2026 13:43

Clafoutie · 01/10/2026 13:05

Thank you for posting this. It is an important read, whatever side of the debate people end up on.

I agree. I had to stop reading when it said her abuser told her he would kill her pets if she told anyone. The abuse started when she was two years old.

Xcellently · 01/10/2026 13:44

HelpMyBlackLabradorVotesReform · 01/10/2026 13:36

Fucking hell - using a thread about a bodged execution to score cheap points on grammar is pretty low.

Don’t be ridiculous. That’s all.

EmmaOfNormandy · 01/10/2026 13:47

So much of a hidden underclass of ghoulish people visible here.

For economy of language, try "cowards". People who get a rather questionable feeling about the idea of inflicting various degrees of unpleasantness on another human being with the excuse of various degrees of unpleasantness being visited upon an innocent. (And often an innocent they would happily condemn to a life of poverty and abuse if they aren't the right sort of innocent).

"I pardon you" said Louis XIV to a man convicted of murder. "But I also pardon the man who would kill you."

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 13:49

OsfameronTanamoril · 01/10/2026 07:49

Guillotine! 😮

There’s a video online - if it’s still up - of the last execution by guillotine in France, in the 1970’s. It’s psychological torture for the condemned. The prisoner is sat down just before the execution takes place and their hair cut if it’s longer than neck length. Then the collar of the prison issue shift is cut away. It kind of brings home what’s about to happen. Hands are bound behind their backs and they’re marched out to the courtyard and placed face down on a board which is then pushed quickly up to the waiting blade. The prisoner also sees their own coffin which is waiting at the side of the guillotine. At the sight of the apparatus the prisoner was visibly distressed. There’s also recent research to suggest that death isn’t instantaneous. Imagine that !!

NewGoldFox · 01/10/2026 13:49

Apologies if this is already discussed upthread, but I’ve just read that abortion is essentially unobtainable in Tennessee.
How can abortion be denied and the death penalty be happening in the same state, bizarre!

morecakeneverstop · 01/10/2026 13:52

smooththecat · 01/10/2026 13:02

It doesn’t put the medical team in a horrible position. They will treat her as they would any other patient.

Perhaps @mids2019 is referring to the medical team providing life-saving care knowing that, in so doing, they are essentially preparing her for another attempt at execution. They might feel a moral conflict.

ImmortalNowBabyDoll · 01/10/2026 13:53

I don't agree with the death penalty, but I didn't have massively strong feelings in this particular case as what she did was so awful. However, to try to re-execute her now would be completely inhumane despite her crime. I don't think it can be justified now.

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 13:57

warninglivewithoutwarning · 01/10/2026 09:37

It’s my understanding that instead of withdrawing food, we just don’t force feed

That was supposed to be the intention of the Liverpool Pathway - guidance on end of life practices and protocols in the final days and hours before death. Only problem was it wasn’t adhered to and some of the protocols were forced or applied to patients who weren’t actually dying. It was phased out in 2014 and replaced with a system that relies more on compassionate communication and clinical judgement.

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 13:58

morecakeneverstop · 01/10/2026 13:52

Perhaps @mids2019 is referring to the medical team providing life-saving care knowing that, in so doing, they are essentially preparing her for another attempt at execution. They might feel a moral conflict.

This is what struck me. It must be an awful dilemma for medics to be saving her life only for it to be ended again as soon as she’s declared fit.

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 14:01

NewGoldFox · 01/10/2026 13:49

Apologies if this is already discussed upthread, but I’ve just read that abortion is essentially unobtainable in Tennessee.
How can abortion be denied and the death penalty be happening in the same state, bizarre!

It’s a moral double standard. Compounded by the fact that the anti abortion laws only protect the unborn for the duration of the pregnancy. No-one gives a monkeys what happens after that.

EmmaOfNormandy · 01/10/2026 14:04

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 13:49

There’s a video online - if it’s still up - of the last execution by guillotine in France, in the 1970’s. It’s psychological torture for the condemned. The prisoner is sat down just before the execution takes place and their hair cut if it’s longer than neck length. Then the collar of the prison issue shift is cut away. It kind of brings home what’s about to happen. Hands are bound behind their backs and they’re marched out to the courtyard and placed face down on a board which is then pushed quickly up to the waiting blade. The prisoner also sees their own coffin which is waiting at the side of the guillotine. At the sight of the apparatus the prisoner was visibly distressed. There’s also recent research to suggest that death isn’t instantaneous. Imagine that !!

The guillotine was devised to be merciful (and anyone who has read accounts of the execution of Damiens will probably understand why) and egalitarian.

The UK royal commission tasked with reviewing capital punishment in the 1950s went all over the world witnessing a variety of executions (clearly a job some posters here feel they were made for). They agreed that while the guillotine was indeed humane, efficient, and reliable, it was somehow "not British".. And to be fair there are few methods as quick and certain as a long drop hanging that can be done in 8 seconds from the hangman entering the cell to the condemned swinging (they don't swing, by the way).

Keen students of capital punishment - so many posters here - will of course know that there was a working and monthly tested gallows in Wandsworth until 1993. However, fear not, the Home Office has kept all the specifications and engineering plans. Although, judging by the hard posters here, that's a needless frivolity, and all we need is a rope over a tree so you can charge the condemned persons relatives a fee to allow them to pull on the legs to hasten the oncoming oblivion.

EasternStandard · 01/10/2026 14:07

PumpkinsAndCoconuts · 01/10/2026 08:46

And? She lured Colleen Slemmer to a secluded location, tortured her, smashed her skull and collected a piece as a “souvenir” to brag about the murder.
this describes her actions. Actions that were - obviously - cruel and inhumane.

Trying to downplay or minimise that is - IMO - disgusting, offensive and incredibly disrespectful to Colleen Slemmer.

I find the death penalty morally wrong (and object to the notoriety it affords convicts).
But I firmly believe that we should make the case against the death penalty without trying to minimise the convicted murderer’s crimes or painting her as somehow less “deserving” than other convicted murderers…That is disrespectful to Colleen Slemmer and her family.

or in other words: I am categorically opposed to the death penalty. Because I object to the death penalty in general. Not because of any sympathy towards Pike or an attempt to downplay the severity of her crimes.

My sympathies lie firmly with Colleen Slemmer and her grieving mother May Martinez.

I’d not heard of Pike, this sounds brutally awful. The poor victim.

MellowSubmarine · 01/10/2026 14:10

Rosscameasdoody · 01/10/2026 14:01

It’s a moral double standard. Compounded by the fact that the anti abortion laws only protect the unborn for the duration of the pregnancy. No-one gives a monkeys what happens after that.

I’m anti the death penalty, and pro choice. But I don’t think there’s an automatic double standard in being pro death penalty while also being anti choice, depending on your argument.

If someone makes the argument that abortion is wrong because only god should end life, then yes, obvious double standard.
If someone is against abortion because they believe foetuses are alive and should therefore have the same protections as anyone else, then I don’t think it’s a double standard for them to also be fine with capital punishment - they don’t want foetuses aborted because they are innocent life, that is not the case with death row inmates. (Obviously you can make other arguments against the “protection of life” view, ie danger to the life of the mother, but I’m talking specifically about whether it’s consistent with being pro the death penalty)

warninglivewithoutwarning · 01/10/2026 14:11

dustabsorber · 01/10/2026 10:55

There is more detail in US online papers. She was still conscious after the first dose and still snoring an hour after the procedure started. Its cruel not just on her, but also all those present.

‘Those present’ should have not chosen to have been there.

lepara · 01/10/2026 14:11

Murder is a crime. Execution is murder by appointment. The irony of that never ceases to amaze me. In the US the execution is a voyeur's paradise, with a crowd of tricoteuses looking through a window at someone being killed by timetable. Why so many witnesses, one would do. But no....

All this in a Bible Belt state, where Jesus lives and saves (all but those on death row). The hypocrisy of these evangelical "Christians" who tolerate this is something else.

I am against the death penalty. Life in solitary without parole is enough punishment for anyone.

EmmaOfNormandy · 01/10/2026 14:12

warninglivewithoutwarning · 01/10/2026 14:11

‘Those present’ should have not chosen to have been there.

It's clear there are posters here who would have bought tickets.