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

Official link to confirm this allegation? Oh wait, there isn’t one. Just a load of social media made up speculation as always.

It’s A known fact that Christa Pike had a blood disorder which made the possibility of a failed execution likely. IN fact she asked for a different method of execution to mitigate this fact, but hey, it’s easier to believe that she deliberately starved herself to make sure it went wrong. Adds nicely to the narrative doesn’t it.

Aileen is another story. I believe hers was self defense.

I don't believe that this 'change' (aka the failed execution) qualifies in their law to overturn the execution. Do correct me if I'm wrong. No point arguing from a lay person's sense of what's reasonable. That wouldn't work in the USA anyway.

So then they need to change the method of execution. If that isn't an option then they need to improve how they carry it out next time. Or come up with a legitimate legal argument to overturn the order.

I don't agree with executions. Far better ways to keep these people productive in society. But we don't have suitable alternatives yet. Why do people think it's better to advocate for life in prison? That's pure torture. To ease their own guilt?? Why? That's not the better option!

This is such a horrific case. Death penalty is barbaric. I have no idea what happens now to Christa. I would have thought a psychiatric facility would be the best place for her but I don’t know.

I agree the first one was more than likely self-defence. I don't believe the rest were. My opinion is that either that first killing broke something mentally inside her and she started to perceive threats where there were none, or she realised how easy it was and thought she could get away with it.

Either way, she was wrongly executed; she was severely mentally unwell at the time of execution, to the point of having auditory hallucinations. She's another who should have been in a secure medical facility, probably for the rest of her life. She's also another who was badly failed by everyone who was supposed to protect her and suffered a lifetime of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

So did she, said as much many times at trial. After her much quicker time on death row it all came out about her constant abuse. Arguably worse than CPs. I think AW was eventually diagnosed with a personality disorder. There are hundreds of thousands of pretty messed up people that also think CP should die for her crimes. I also think there are many more people that can honestly say that this is not the way to do it . Lethal injection, gas chamber and electric chair have all proven to be inappropriate.

The men she had sex with for money were violent and aggressive with her, I believe some were actually convicted of crimes too or had history of sexual assaults and violence against women, the way I believe in her case it was self defense and partly because of her past as in how she was always abused and physically and sexually by people like she was some object. I also think because she was a sex worker they thought they could do and be as violent and disgusting as they wanted because whose going to believe a sex worker? There was a video that was never seen at the time where she says she couldn’t plead self defense because they wouldn’t believe her because they had made her think that if she did that then she would still be put to death. I think it was on Netflix. This woman was 110% failed by everyone and her story is very very sad.

Thank you, as always there is a mumsnetter that says it better than I can clumsily convey.

I suppose you could make that argument. The difference with PPP is that it happens specifically after having a child due to hormones not at any other time.

So if a woman kills her child after birth it would lean to the fact she was temporarily insane, if she killed her 10 year old out of the blue it isn’t as easy to believe she was temporarily insane.

Becsuse in the light of the failed attempts, her lawyers immediately filed a new court action, which will need yo be resolved. Iwill take years

Initially it was. Then she got a taste for it. Though the judge was corrupt in her case and they specifically withheld the fact the first man she killed had a history of sexual violence towards women and had been jailed for it.

I think she might have got away with self defence had she not murdered so many more.

I generally am pretty cold in that I don't think it's worth keeping scum of the earth alive indefinitely and am therefore in favour of the death penalty for clearcut cases (i.e. prolific child abusers, the most violent individuals - what do they really add to society by being alive but incarcerated?)

And I did feel like that about this case. But I just read that Christa Pike was raped as a toddler, and again as an 11 year old and as a 12 year old, when she tried to commit suicide. She had absolutely no chance. No wonder she developed into a mentally damaged twisted person.

Very difficult. Colleen's family should never have had to go through losing their girl in such a violent horrible way. Child Christa should have been protected too.

Pike might survive but she’ll stay in prison forever even if she lives, as I understand it.

I'm sympathetic to your argument but actually none of this matters. Whether you had it just as bad as her and yet managed to not horrifically kill someone. Whether adults failed her. Whether she dehydrated herself to sabotage her death sentence. Whether she had brain damage. Whether she suffered or didn't suffer in prison. Whether it would be better for her to die because of her intense suffering, or because her victim's mother desperately wants it, or because individuals want her to suffer even more before she finally dies.

What matters is that most humans and most societies, when they really see what the death penalty entails, they don't want it. Even war-torn countries like CAR and Chad have abolished the DP. People don't want it because it reflects a base human reflex to seek vengeance and retribution, which - if it is allowed to run amok - will destroy communities, kill and brutalise innocents, ruin infrastructure and stability, perpetuate violence, and undermine the moral authority of the state.

Most of all, embracing the DP in ANY circumstances debases and violates our collective humanity. THIS is why three-quarters of countries in the world have abolished the DP in law or practice.

The details of the Christa Pike case are actually not relevant to the central issue, which is that the death penalty is an abomination that civilised societies reject.

We're only focusing on Christa Pike because execution of the death penalty in her case was horribly botched in a way that graphically illuminated the barbarism of DP for all to see.

Individuals here on this thread today have shown quite some bloodlust.

I certainly sympathise with the ones who are afraid that horrendous people will be freed by a careless state to repeat their heinous acts. But in this case, the answer is not the DP, it's that we keep pressure on the system and make sure that it is properly funded and supported.

Others here want vengeance, retribution, for Pike to suffer, for her to be tortured even more. I want NO part of this. I do NOT condone this mentality whatsoever. I do NOT agree to people to be tortured and murdered in my name.

Everyone suffers if this vicious instinct for violent retribution is allowed to flourish. I don't want my kids to grow up in that world, because NO ONE is safe then.

I understand that but I will always find it very strange that after a twice botched execution , ambulances were sent to take her to hospital for “ life saving treatment” …. Just my thoughts at the time…

I think we are barking up the same tree, the antidote to all of this is better care. Care in society that is lacking. Care that makes prison as tough as it need to be with an exit ramp. I am not eloquent enough to explain my very mixed feelings but the overidring feeling to me is just sad.

No, they haven't said that. You are misrepresenting them yet again.

Whilst the death penalty is accepted in many states, they are still not allowed to perform cruel or unusual punishment under the constitution. Prolonged attempts to kill someone with repeated failures would come under this especially if no treatment was provided. Killing someone is one thing, torturing them to death quite another.

I agree with most of this. However, I like Norway's prison system. Prisons should not be tough. They should focus on therapy and education. I agree they need to be secure, and we need to ensure people are not released until they are safe to be in society, but the punishment is the loss of liberty; anything more than that strays into the territory of vengeance.

Huh? I'm not implying anything. I'm just responding to what you said.

Tough enough to see that true freedom is a better option. This all takes money and time.x

Unfortunately you simply haven't understood the valid point this poster was making. It's akin to the way teenagers never listen to parents talking about the risk of cancer from smoking, because they think it will never happen to them even though objectively they know there is a clear correlation and that there is no good reason why they should be immune. Because of the damage Christa Pike suffered, although she probably knew objectively that the death penalty was a thing, she may well not have fully understood it or thought it could apply to her.

Because you and others minimise it a lot. It rather inconveniently detracts from the wish some people have to demonise her to try to justify the appalling nature of what has been done to her.

Defence solicitors can't use that argument without evidence from reputable medical experts. Psychosis is particularly hard to prove, and in fact some people hesitate to go mental illness type defences because they may ultimately lead to incarceration for longer periods than the likely term of imprisonment. People I know who have had to work in Broadmoor have told me it's just horrible.

No, it's nothing to do with that, as has been explained to you. She didn't take the plea deal because of the bad advice she received from her incompetent lawyer. The boyfriend didn't have a plea deal.

It is, however, interesting that the prosecution were actually fully prepared to let her avoid the death penalty, irrespective of what the views of the victim's family were.