Christa Pikes is awake and ‘talking’

[wouldntyouwanthelp]

She’s out of the coma and talking to her lawyers. Aibu to think the state of Tennessee can’t possibly try to do the lethal injection again ? Surely not? People on Reddit are suggesting she might need an amputation of one of her arms because of how caustic pentobarbital is.

Christa Pike 'conscious and speaking at hospital' after failed execution in US
https://news.sky.com/share/13595950

Oh no my apologies I was meant to quote someone else! So yes my apologies.

Sorry this was in reply to @EvieBB.

She is diagnosed Bipolar.

It also seems likely she had Borderline Personality Disorder, from what some professionals have said.

Is this a fact? Is there proof of this? Or is this a he say she say internet whispers thing?

So maybe she refused support, stopped seeing her therapists and refused to take medication?

Sorry this is late, long day!

The difference is obvious to me in practice. You're not comparing like for like. Not saving someone because of a lack of resources is not the same as funding a whole expensive arm of a legal system designed to kill people. The motive for one is to make sure resources are allocated to do the best with the budget they have. The motive for the other is to cause unnecessary death.

Yes, the specialist's report. nashvillebanner.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Dr.-Brand-Forensic-Psychological-Evaluation_Christa-Pike_07.29.23.pdf

Symptoms of untreated PTSD and bipolar disorder likely caused or at least contributed to her agitation and poor concentration

The report also refers to her learning disabilities.

Again, yes.

^The average age of onset of bipolar disorder is approximately 13
years of age (Kovacs & Pollock, 1995). Consistent with this, Christa began showing early signs of mania or hypomania due to bipolar disorder by early adolescence. She stated, “I could stay up partying for days and couldn’t understand why they (her friends) were all falling asleep.” Being able to stay up for days in a row is a sign of mania. Christa was already suffering from insomnia and excessive energy due to bipolar disorder^

This is on top of severe PTSD.

DNA alone isn’t sufficient, which is why listed the need for other forms of evidence in my comment you quoted.

The link you’ve provided would suggest other evidence was lacking in those cases.

She was never given any support before she committed the crime.

She asked teachers (via a drawing) for help. Got none.

She tried to kill herself age 12. Her mother took her to a mental health professional but no one followed it up.

^Christa grew so depressed that she “gave up” after losing her grandmother. Following this devastating loss, Christa became so depressed she attempted suicide for the first time. She stated, “I cared about nothing after that. I wanted to go with her. I didn’t care about anything. That was the first time I tried to kill myself. I OD’d. It was my stupidity that did it (meaning kept her from
dying) – I took too many pills.” She vomited the pills she had taken. She told the adults that she had merely been trying to get high so that they would not put her in a psychiatric hospital. Her parents took her to a mental health professional, but this doctor did not hospitalize her. Christa did not receive follow up psychiatric treatment despite having overdosed.^

So when was she diagnosed with bipolar?

The way you write makes it seem like you are trying to find out if Christa rejected the help she was given and was frankly just a bad'un.

She never got help.

But one of the core purposes of having a judicial system is to attempt to remove personal vengeance from the process. Apart from anything else, making the understandable desire for revenge on the part of victims and victims families the core principle would inevitably result in completely different penalties for the same crime.

Trying to replace personal vengeance with a more objective system is basically why legal systems were developed in the first place. And that happened over 4000 years ago.

Just read she was diagnosed with this AFTER the killing.

After the crime.

She had symptoms from age 13 (it's in the report).

But no one cared enough to get her diagnosed or follow up her first suicide attempt.

Just because no one diagnosed it before the crime doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You can have bipolar or schizophrenia or learning disabilities but if no one cares about your behaviour enough to take you to a doctor, you won't be diagnosed.

it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. if you have cancer, it might not be diagnosed until you collapse and end up in hospital. If you have severe mental illness, in this case it came out in her appalling murder.

If someone picks up the cancer early, it can be treated. If someone sees the extreme behaviour that shows something is very wrong in the head, if you get help it can be treated.

But no one cared enough to do that.

No I’m trying to get the facts of her mental illness, I’ve just read she was diagnosed after the killing.

Yes that's right, because no one tried to help her before, when it might have stopped her out of control behaviour. Please read my post above your last one.

So mothers who kill their children due to postpartum psychosis. Death penalty (no appeal) yes or no?

It's quite worrying that some people have such total faith in the infallibility of current scientific processes that they think we've got to the point that miscarriages of justice are no longer possible. And I think a completely blind faith in that infallibility will, in itself, inevitably lead to miscarriages of justice.

There have been so many miscarriages of justice over the years driven by the blind faith of jury members in experts and their subjective interpretation of current scientific knowledge. 20 years from now. current science will be considered outdated and basic.

There is no treatment for that type of behaviour. Plenty of people have psychotic episodes they don’t go out stabbing people.

Again, I think the mental heath card gets overplayed these days.

Post partum mothers are a whole different ballgame, we could talk about it for hours. It’s too broad a question for me to answer fairly without looking into individual cases. I would say I’m generally more sympathetic to the idea of diminished responsibility in cases of post partum psychosis.

Start a thread on this topic if you like, it would draw some interesting discussion. There aren’t enough pages left to get into on here.

Wasn’t she in trouble with the law a few times too? Surely the police would have flagged her behaviour especially if it was manic? As they have a duty of care too.

I agree with the mental illness being over played. I know some criminals/murderers try to use this to get out of their crimes and it disgusts me when there are genuine people out there suffering with this on a daily basis.

The police came to her house looking for her before she left for the job training camp where she killed Colleen Slammer. They didn't find her, and didn't say why they wanted to speak to her.

But she had been violently raped at 12 and got an infection from it. It was reported and the police did nothing.

She had (via a drawing) asked a teacher for help and been rejected. No one got involved.

She was beaten up a LOT as a child. The police did not get involved.

The US police aren't interested in poor and very difficult families.

No I know, some police there are either corrupt or incompetent. Wonder why it wasn’t disclosed why they was looking for her before the murder.

Because they are reacting emotionally and it probably doesn't end there.
Their politics probably align in the same way - reactionary. I'll leave it there because I'm stepping into murky waters and I don't wish to derail the thread further.