Christa Pike -where does she stand legally?

[mids2019]

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]

Pro lifers aren't about life though are they, they are about controlling women.

I don’t believe in eye for eye but she got the death penalty 30 years ago. They had a look into it and still decided should have it. If it hadn’t been ballsed up she would be gone by now and her mother could have peace. This is not as simple as an eye for eye situation. This is a case where they stopped and she’s now on life support. How do they justify messing up her execution and now keeping her alive? I am not sure she should ever have been given it in the first place judging by the abuse she suffered. Both her and the victim have been let down. Also she did try and kill somebody in prison so I’m not sure she is a changed person. But do I believe in letting her suffer. Absolutely not so please don’t assume that about me.

Yes I’ve posted again. I don’t think she should’ve got it. What I don’t understand is the messing it up and now keeping her on life support

I guess it’s as simple as, if she’s taken to hospital, the medical team there obey their oath and try to save her just like they would anyone who came through their doors. They have nothing to do with the prison service or the penalty imposed.

But it is rather bizarre isn’t it.

This has been explained already but they only have a set time to carry out the execution. That time ended so it would have been unlawful to leave her to die.

Yes that’s awful to see

Some of the posts on this thread are honestly frightening. The desire for retribution and the suggestion that the family get to decide what happens is frightening. She has and is being punished for what she did. Life in solitary confinement is an appropriate punishment. She doesn’t deserve to die and she certainly doesn’t deserve to have the barbaric failed execution she has had. Nobody sentenced her to have the most painful and barbaric exertion possible. Taking her life isn’t enough for some, quite disturbed, people here.

Theres lots of attempts to suggest she couldn’t have been rehabilitated in any way but the attempted murder of an inmate happened 23 years ago.

I am so glad we don’t have the death penalty here. I swear some individuals would love to see stoning me back and would happily take part.

Agree. If you’ve ever sat with a relative dying slowly, on that pathway, it’s truly awful.

Why the comment about her victim not getting any mercy?

Sweeping generalisations are really unhelpful in nuanced and important discussions

And one sentence comments which don't explain anymore are also really unhelpful.

Would you like to explain your point in a few more lines?

It might be better taking the discussion to a different thread though.

I often think this. Those that support the death penalty, and think it should happen quickly without access to appeal, and are happy with brutal methods… maybe they’d be happier living in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan?

Except of course they wouldn’t, because they think those countries are backwards and full of savages.

Arguably, and ironically, third world countries would be far more efficient at getting it done.

It’s interesting how many people mention Pike’s attempted murder of a fellow inmate and their belief that this further justifies her death sentence . A lot of people seem to mention it on SM; I wonder how many of them are the same people that celebrated when Ian Watkins and Ian Huntley were murdered in prison? I think some people feel it’s sometimes ok for inmates to murder other prisoners and sometimes not, depending on who the individuals are and what their crimes are.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t think it’s ever ok for inmates to assault or murder their fellow inmates).

You made a statement that pro lifers, no qualifiers - no ‘most’ or ‘some’ - are about controlling women’s bodies. End of sentence, no further description, just that one intent.

Condensing down a massive group of people into one simplistic sentiment is reductive and dismissive. You don’t have to agree with ‘pro lifers’ but refusing to acknowledge that it’s a highly complex and multi-faceted argument on both sides weakens your opinion to the point of irrelevance.

But I’m sure you knew exactly what I meant.

Yeah, that is ironic. The US has attempted to sanitise and medicalise the execution process to try and look more civilised so they can’t be compared to those nasty backwards places in the Middle East. But this situation and others like it have made a mockery of their ‘civilised’ DP process. America is just so fucked.

I do wonder if there will be updates as to her medical condition. The extent of the damage will take time to assess. At the very least we know she was deprived of oxygen for quite a long time and that her arm/s will be chemically burned. There’s a significant possibility if not probability of brain damage. If the vein failed then that’s a strongly alkaline substance leaching into the surrounding tissue, so there’s a risk of tissue necrosis at that site/those sites.

It seems that at least some of it got into circulation (just not at a high enough dose to kill her as quickly as intended). So there’s a risk of multiple organ damage and/or failure too - lungs, heart, kidneys and liver.

They likely don’t know the extent of the damage at this point, so the medical team are going to do their best to stabilize and treat her while they run an a battery of tests.

If it comes to withdrawing treatment, and it may, that isn’t a decision for the DOC to make. That will be down to the doctors, her next of kin and/or her POA (if she has one). Her parents are dead, but she apparently has a sister. If there is no next of kin/poa then I’m not sure whether doctors could make that call in this particular case, or whether they’d need a court order.

This is, frankly, catastrophic. Worst case scenario for both Christa Pike and Tennessee.

She’s entitled to medical privacy I assume. Especially if brain damaged and she can’t consent to details being made public.

To be honest I don’t see how the stance of pro lifers can be about anything but controlling womens’ bodies, given that they don’t seem to have one iota of concern what happens to the child once it’s born.

Agreed.

The State is basically saying you must have this child whether you want it or not; however, in light of the fact that we will do a piss poor job of supporting you or the child once they are here, we reserve the right to murder them at a later date.

Yeahhh.

"we care desperately about the baby while it's in your body and we're going to take action for it but the second it's out, who cares if it's hungry, thirsty, abused? We're not going to help"

Absolutely this.

She is, but her lawyers are entitled to know and apparently haven’t been told much.

Ethics start with people.

Would you work for a company that sold drugs specifically intended to kill people ?

Tbf I think it’s less about ethics and more to do with it being bad for business. They would stand to lose more than they gain, so they keep out of it entirely.