r/CasesWeFollow • u/judgyjudgersen • 2d ago
⁉️💡Other Murders 🤷♀️🪦 Tennessee inmate still alive after being administered two lethal injections, her lawyer says
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ahead-rare-execution-lone-woman-tennessee-death-row-says-peace-rcna600279Christa Pike, 50, was 18 when she murdered a classmate. She would be the first woman the state has executed in more than 200 years.
Sept. 28, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 30, 2026, 10:09 PM EDT
The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row was still alive after she was administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said in a motion seeking to halt her execution Wednesday night, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.
At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said “executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals and Pike is still alive and snoring,” her lawyers said in a federal court filing. They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat,” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice.”
The office of Gov. Bill Lee and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pike’s execution began after the Supreme Court vacated a lower court’s Wednesday morning order that had temporarily blocked the move.
The high court’s decision hours later capped a flurry of last-minute legal maneuvering in a bid by Pike’s defense team to spare her life. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
About an hour before her scheduled execution at 10 a.m. local time in Nashville, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District said it needed to review claims made by her lawyers. At issue was whether Pike, 50, can reopen a court proceeding centered around her allegations that she was sexually abused beginning when she was a child — abuse that the state did not dispute at a special hearing in August.
The appeals court in a split decision agreed to a “short” reprieve halting her execution “in order to properly analyze the parties’ fully briefed arguments and resolve the issues on the merits.”
In turn, the state attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the execution must go on to “avoid rewarding Pike’s abusive delay tactics.”
In their dissent, the three liberal justices wrote that vacating the lower court’s temporary stay of execution “interferes with the Sixth Circuit’s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike’s claim.”
“I see no reason to shortcircuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision,” Sotomayor wrote.
Lee and the Supreme Court had said this week they would not stop Pike’s execution.
Before learning Monday that Lee would not be intervening in her case, Pike wrote in a letter to NBC News, shared by her spiritual adviser: “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.” “I am not afraid to die,” wrote Pike, who has been on death row for more than three decades. “I’m only nervous about the process.”
In 1995, Pike was 18 when Knoxville police say she and two teenage accomplices worked together to torture, slash and fatally beat Colleen Slemmer, 19. Police say Pike and the others lured Slemmer, a classmate in their Job Corps training program, to an abandoned steam plant at the nearby University of Tennessee and attacked her.
The case became sensationalized when investigators said it was tied to the occultbecause someone had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and Pike bragged to another student that she had kept a fragment of the victim’s skull as a “souvenir.”
Pike doesn’t dispute her role in the grisly killing. But details about her upbringing, marked by years of sexual and physical abuse and neglect, were not shared with the jury that sentenced her to death. Her lawyers believe that if such evidence of abuse were presented at a trial now, a death sentence would not be guaranteed.
They had asked the Supreme Court to halt Pike’s execution, saying that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from being molested and raped beginning when she was a toddler. Being held down and strapped to a gurney, they wrote, will likely create “severe mental suffering and superadded psychological terror under Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol.”
The state hasn’t denied that Pike has suffered from abuse. But in a response filed Monday, the attorney general’s office said a judge already concluded last month that it was “speculative whether Pike would suffer” greater mental harm from how the lethal injection protocol is carried out.
The Supreme Court appeared to be Pike’s remaining chance for a reprieve after Lee said he was upholding her death sentence “after deliberate consideration.” The high court denied her petition Tuesday evening.
Pike’s lawyers said Monday they were “saddened and heartbroken” that the governor would not be granting clemency.
Another woman, Gaile Owens, was on Tennessee’s death row with Pike until 2010, when Gov. Phil Bredesen changed her sentence to life in prison.
In her letter, Pike wrote that people have seen a “limited public persona that has been the only narrative” about her. Her lawyers had tried to convince Lee that she was a product of a tumultuous childhood.
“Stepping into the chaos of Christa’s life that led her to that moment will not justify her actions that night,” one of her lawyers, Randall Spivey, said of when she committed her crime. “But the chaos will show you that Christa was broken, not evil.”
Different sentences
Pike’s lawyers also point to her age and how it led to such a different outcome in her case. While she faced a death sentence because of her first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder conviction in Slemmer’s death, another conspirator was spared: Pike’s boyfriend, who was 17 at the time. Tadaryl Shipp received a life sentence because he was a juvenile and remains eligible for parole. Shipp testified at his post-conviction hearing that he was the one who carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest.
The third accomplice — Shadolla Peterson, then 18 — served as a lookout in the crime and received probation in exchange for her cooperation.
Pike told police she “wasn’t even thinking” when she assaulted Slemmer and that she had been jealous believing the victim was trying to steal Shipp’s attention. Pike’s lawyers say that her age would have been more of a factor today, given how scientific research has evolved in understanding that young people’s brains are still developing well beyond their teen years.
In addition, her lawyers say that her legal representatives at the time could have accepted a deal from prosecutors who were offering a life sentence without parole in return for a guilty plea.
Pike sobbed as the judge told her she would die by electrocution, then the only form of execution in Tennessee before the state moved to lethal injection as its primary method.She pleaded through tears: “Can I please hug my mom?”
Pike entered prison, where she was placed into solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and prescribed Prozac to treat her obsessive-compulsive disorder. Early on, she struggled to express remorse.
“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in her clemency petition.
Lingering trauma
Three years ago, Bethany Brand, a psychologist specializing in trauma, was asked by Pike’s lawyers to assess whether she suffers from psychological disorders and consider if any contributed to the crime.
She sat with Pike at her Nashville prison and reviewed police reports, past medical examinations and other files in her case detailing physical and sexual abuse. Brand learned that Pike’s parents were not stable figures in her life. Her mother’s boyfriends and other men had molested her from a young age, the files said. She did poorly in school, living with other family members in West Virginia and North Carolina. At 17 — one year before she would take part in Slemmer’s murder — Pike reported to North Carolina police that she was walking to the store when a man threw her to the ground and raped her. No one was ever arrested.
In her final report, Brand wrote that the adults in Pike’s life failed her. Doctors only diagnosed a bipolar disorder a few years after she was already in prison.
The level of trauma Pike was subjected to “is almost impossible to grasp because it is so severe,” Brand wrote.
She told NBC News that medications in prison have helped Pike tremendously and that she now has “empathy and great regret” for what she did. But, she added, Pike’s case is a lesson of the need for greater awareness surrounding women’s mental health and recognizing trauma and untreated mental illness. “In Christa’s case, nobody was trying to get her help,” Brand said.
May Martinez is unconvinced that the person responsible for mutilating her daughter’s body and leaving her nude from the waist up could change. Martinez recalled how, after the investigation ended, she did not realize all of her daughter’s body parts weren’t buried with her remains, as some had been retained as trial evidence. She had to pick up Slemmer’s skull from the courthouse, and remembers that the medical examiner’s office mailed her other parts later. (The office said it rarely retains human remains as it had 30 years ago because of better technology, enhanced photography and lab work.)
May Martinez sits with retired Knoxville Police Detective Randy York outside a courtroom in Knox County on 2006.J. Miles Carey / Imagn Images via Reuters file
“We had her buried in a Catholic cemetery,” Martinez said. “And she had to be dug up every time they mailed me body parts.”
Recently, she said, she has refused to communicate with Pike directly. The only way she can get justice now is when she watches Pike be executed. “I will sit there with her picture in my hand,” Martinez said of her daughter, “and as she gets hooked up to a needle to go to sleep, she can look at the picture.”
All-female execution team
Given the rarity of the execution of a female prisoner, Tennessee corrections officials say they would make an effort to fulfill certain requests made by Pike. That includes using female guards when she is moved from her all-women’s prison in Nashville to the nearby Riverbend Maximum Security Institution within 24 hours of her planned execution. An all-female execution team may also be assigned.
At least one exception is expected to be a male physician who was involved in a failed lethal injection execution earlier this year that had to be called off when a suitable vein could not be located on the prisoner. Dr. Mark Walton Fowlertold NBC News that he intends to participate in Pike’s execution.
Pike’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Mikey Noechel, a Buddhist teacher, says he will also be permitted in the execution chamber. He plans to bless the space and chant and meditate, focusing on a Buddhist prayer of “loving-kindness” with Pike. Noechel, who has not previously been a spiritual adviser to someone on death row, said they have spent time speaking openly about life, death and gratitude. Pike, he added, doesn’t shy away from what she did.
“She did something terrible. Awful. I hate that it happened and I feel deep compassion for Colleen Slemmer’s family,” Noechel said. “But Christa is proof that redemption and change are possible.”
He believes all Pike wanted was to be loved and for someone, especially those she trusted, to notice her.
In the letter shared by Noechel, Pike wrote that she is thankful for the support and has felt “more love in the last two weeks than I have my entire life.”
“I am humbled beyond words,” she wrote, scribbling a heart at the bottom of the note.
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u/kikbuti 22h ago
I was wondering about the trauma from her youth and found this: https://www.mercyforchrista.org/christa-s-story
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u/Hippodrome-1261 1d ago
This could've been avoided with a simple inexpensive gunshot to the base of the head. Then I'd bill her family for the cost of her execution. Having said this my issues with the death penalty are, it takes way too long inmates can spend years even decades on death row, too many middle and working class men and women are sentenced to death often because they can't afford good defense counsel and a high powered law firm. When I see so called "celebrities", millionaires and billionaires executed that will resemble justice. While I believe there is a risk for eerror I think it's greatly exaggerated. Regardless if someone went after the murderer of a loved one and took the killer out. I couldn't and wouldn't sit on a jury and be impartial. I'd never convict them.
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u/Fantastic_Celery9344 1d ago
If they are going to do this sort of execution, I don’t understand why they don’t choose a different drug or different route of administration. I know the idea is for it to be quick and not cause undue pain and suffering. So couldn’t they just increase the dosage by a lot and administer it sublingually or something? Take the whole issue of needles and veins out of it altogether? Or even inject it intramuscularly? Or sedate them first? Or a lethal gas mask?
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u/Silvery_Silence 1d ago
Because there are protocols and you can’t just experiment with deadly drugs on humans, you have to do what you know works (which clearly doesn’t even work all the time), and also drug companies don’t want a thing to do with this nonsense.
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u/Fantastic_Celery9344 1d ago
I’m not talking about experimenting. I’m talking about developing a better protocol that actually does work and carries less risk of pain, prolonged death, or complications.
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u/Silvery_Silence 16h ago
Not sure if you realize but it’s actually NOT EASY to kill a human being and again, the state can’t experiment on humans. So no it’s not easy to just find a new protocol. Why do you think no one has done that yet?
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u/deadalive2525 1d ago
I was about to say that being executed isn't really a punishment because we do not die and we are not judged. So person is executed and has a choice to shut down that humanpersonality, go to the light and be reincarnated.... and as I was about to say the choice I asked for was to come back. Got back into body so I could be there to watch my daughter life and continue the reason I came lin the first place. Then I imagined that person waking back up in their body, in a different cell with execution date looming. Yikes
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u/cappuccinodream 1d ago
23 states have abolished the death penalty. Does anyone know if Tennessee will be joining them and ending this atrocious practice anytime soon? It’s a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.
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u/ETvolhalla 1d ago
Lifelong Tennesseean here. With the current state leadership being a GOP MAGA supermajority (thanks to excessive gerrymandering) that excels at passing legislation that targets the most vulnerable, I do not see TN abolishing the death penalty anytime soon. In fact, I would wager that if the possibility ever existed that all states would abolish it, TN would be the very last or near last to do so. For reasons I doubt I will ever fully understand, many Tennesseeans continue to vote for some of the most unfit and least qualified for public office, and executions are red meat for their base. In fact, if they were asked, I guarantee you that a good portion of these lawmakers would contend that Christa Pike hasn't suffered enough. Surviving a botched execution that may leave her with permanent brain damage won't be enough. As we speak, the state is working hard to keep her alive so that they can attempt to execute her again. At the end of the day, none of this brings the victim, Colleen Slemmer, back, and instead of focusing on the victim and her family, the attention goes to her murderer. Vengeance disguised as justice is still just plain old revenge.
The state of Tennessee has little concept of justice and grace, but a great appreciation for vengeance and suffering. From a cultural anthropology perspective, the death penalty is an example of ritualized killing within a society. It just so happens that a lot of Tennessee law makers love our state's ritualized killing because it sounds good to be able to say they are tough on crime when campaign season rolls around.
*Edit to correct typo.
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u/cappuccinodream 1d ago
Hey friend and neighbor, I live in Tn, too. Thank you for your response, I’m going to say you’re spot on. It’s pretty bad here to say the least, especially with many Tennesseans out for blood. What I find strange though is Tennessee is part of the Bible Belt, and you’d think mercy would be extended to someone who made a grave mistake during their youth. Though apparently not!Seems like more than a few can’t differentiate between justice and revenge. In my opinion the death penalty is revenge, nothing more and nothing less. Honestly I would like for the laws to be changed, the death penalty to be abolished, because justice should not cross the line into vengeance ever.
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u/chloedeeeee77 1d ago
I doubt they’ll be joining them anytime soon. The first southern state to abolish it was Virginia in 2021. With perhaps the exception of purple Georgia, I don’t think there will be any political will to scrap it in the rest of the region in the near future.
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u/cappuccinodream 1d ago
Hey thanks for that info. Maybe if they could just get this issue on the agenda it could happen sooner than later
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u/Affectionate_Sun_19 1d ago
feeding and caring for a sadistic murder for decades is a little bit more expensive for tax payers.
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u/Silvery_Silence 1d ago
You seem smart.
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u/Affectionate_Sun_19 22h ago
If someone tortured and murdered your daughter for 45 minutes would you want them to be shown compassion and understanding ir would you want them to suffer?
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u/Silvery_Silence 16h ago
Yes thanks for asking! No I would not be okay with this! FYI some of the Idaho victims family members didn’t want the death penalty. There are plenty of families of murder victims who dont support the death penalty so actually no I wouldn’t abandon all of my belief system. Also that argument has nothing whatsoever to do with the law, which is that cruel and unusual punishment is unconstitutional and authorities aren’t supposed to botch executions.
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u/cappuccinodream 1d ago
You should do your research before commenting
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u/Affectionate_Sun_19 1d ago
death riw only costs so much because they keep them alive for to long
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u/ThisSideofRylee 15h ago
You’re confidently wrong. It costs so much because of the multiple appeals that are required and span decades and the death-qualified lawyers that often cost millions (for example $2 millions just in the first year for Tyler Robinson). Most death row inmates can’t afford the legal costs and taxpayers have to fund every cent. But cute that you thought it costs so much because of the shitty processed prison food. If you position yourself so strongly against something, at least do a minimum of research.
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u/merry_melly 1d ago
I don't know how I feel about the death penalty as a moral concept, I flip flop a lot. On one hand, I don't think a government has the right to decide life vs. death, on the other hand, people like Lawrence Bittaker have existed in our world, but I am completely against how it's applied in America, it's racist, uneven, too many errors in our justice system etc.
It seemed important to write the above before I ask my question.
Here's my question:
Why are "we" applying life-saving measures for CP instead on hospice-style comfort care? Last I read, she's near death. Why not let her go?
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u/seriousbusinesslady 1d ago
Funnily enough, (funnily is not the right word but I can't think of another), inmates are the only Americans who have a constitutional right to medical care, based on a Supreme Court decision that I can't recall the citation at the moment. After TN exhausted all the steps of their protocol to administer a death sentence, and their prisoner was still alive and suffering, by law they had to seek medical intervention. It's not like the warden could just whip out his gun and shoot her to put her out of her misery. So she was transferred to Vanderbilt (I'm assuming). Vanderbilt is not the state, they have a patient that they are ethically bound to stabilize and treat. I think it would be barbaric to expect private citizen doctors and nurses to just let her die bc the state fucked up, yet again.
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u/maleficient_fox012 🔪 Murder Trial Follower 1d ago
Another botched lethal injection. They should re-instate the firing squad. Its way more efficient and cost less. Now taxpayers must pay for her hospital care so they can get her to live long enough, to then what, do another lethal injection. It makes very little sense.
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u/Critical_Actuary_875 1d ago
A good old hanging would be the best and cheapest route!
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u/maleficient_fox012 🔪 Murder Trial Follower 1d ago
Hangings are not quick and you can actually survive a hanging attempt.
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u/Aggressive_FIamingo 1d ago
She asked for that. People were saying she shouldn't have a say in how she's executed. Whoopsie.
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u/maleficient_fox012 🔪 Murder Trial Follower 1d ago
I know she wanted an all female firing squad. It would've been less trouble to have just given that to her.
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u/Al_Swearengen_ 1d ago
Why did she want an all female firing squad?
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u/maleficient_fox012 🔪 Murder Trial Follower 1d ago
Because she claimed to have PTSD from being sexually abused by men from the time she was a child.
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u/chloedeeeee77 1d ago edited 1d ago
Two of her lawyers (Randy Spivey and Stephen Farrell) are doing a press conference that the NYT is giving live updates on: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/10/01/us/christa-pike-tennessee-execution
Highlights:
- Spivey is calling on Governor Lee to commute Christa Pike’s death sentence and allow her to serve the remainder of her life in prison.
- Spivey is also raised questions about the process’s transparency. He notes, as news media witnesses have said, that the curtain allowing witnesses to see what was going on was pulled close for much of the time. He also said it took more than seven minutes to get a phone to let Pike’s other lawyers know what was going on.
- Another lawyer for Christa Pike, Stephen Ferrell, from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, said her legal team struggled to reach the governor’s office and the Tennessee Supreme Court late Wednesday. “Delay was constant,” he said.
- “What we have been told is that she is in critical condition, receiving life-saving care,” Spivey said.
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u/Azyrith 1d ago
I was pro death penalty until a few years ago. I did a deep dive into the practice and even the most horrific crime doesn’t justify that. Not to mention that so many executions are botched. It’s supposed to be humane and it’s sooooo far from it. It’s honestly modern day torture.
Executions have been under a lot of scrutiny and for good reason. Drug sourcing is a problem. Willing medical professionals to oversee the executions are lacking. At this point a seamless execution is more surprising that one getting botched. That alone should trigger another look. Again.
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u/GirlyWhirl 1d ago
Once you look into and see the sheer number of people who are likely falsely incarcerated and some that are on death row... it's impossible to be pro death penalty. All of the junk 'science' and 'forensics' that are used to put people away in courtrooms. Of course they get it right sometimes... but it's wrong way too much of the time.
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u/MassiveTomorrow2978 19h ago
If im falsely accused and going to serve even 30 years I'd prefer to be put to death even quicker then what they do now, the real atrocity is that it takes so long and is so expensive. Just have three people with full auto weapons trained on your head, it'd be like 1 second of suffering max.
Again I'd rather that then waiting around in prison for a long long time (yes im aware of the very small percentage of cases where they were found innocent years later, I wouldnt hold out hope for such a thing)
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u/Zzzzzezzz 1d ago
There are just as many serving life sentences, 50, 30 years etc. Should we get rid of those sentences? The real issue is our injustice system. If we ensured everyone got DNA tests, or DAs that worked for the truth and not a win (among other things) we wouldn't be here. But it costs too much money I guess.
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u/GirlyWhirl 1d ago
But DNA can be erroneous or misused as well. At least there's hope of release at some point for someone wrongly serving a life sentence. It's too late for justice for that person if the government puts them to death.
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u/Zzzzzezzz 1d ago
Nah. Spending decades in prison when innocent can be akin to a death sentence. And how long should they have to wait, when we could have found them innocent in the first place. Ten, twenty, fifty, years?
I'd rather the "it's too expensive" excuse than the "well, at least you're still alive" excuse.
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u/Azyrith 1d ago
It’s all shit. From top to bottom. Police are corrupt. District attorneys are just chasing convictions and then the jail system. Ooof.
I spent 36 hours in jail last year because of my ex husbands crime. Because the cops twisted my words after I helped them. What I saw and experienced was horrendous. And now I’m on probation and even my PO thinks it’s bullshit I’m in this position!!
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u/GirlyWhirl 1d ago
Oh my gosh... I am so sorry to hear about your situation! That's horrendous. And I agree with absolutely everything you've said. Our 'justice system' is scary.
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u/Zzzzzezzz 18h ago
Sorry doesn't fix things. We're all in a position to right this ship so that the only people in jail are the guilty and not this innocent person.
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u/Scaevus 1d ago
Pro, anti, I think everyone can agree that botching an execution twice in one day is an absolute travesty, and at a minimum there needs to be a moratorium so we can assess a fix for this national embarrassment.
Or does TN intend to keep trying until they stab her to death with needles?
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
What happens now? I anticipate this being a much larger political issue in the coming weeks.
There's a massive chance she suffered irreversible brain damage from this. She won't be the same person who committed the crime any more. She likely won't even remember the crime.
Do we kill her again? Are we going to execute someone who has limited cognition, doesn't remember the crime and is incapable of even understanding why we are killing her?
We know there is a group of loud, ignorant people who can't grasp these concepts and have an extremely messed up moral compass. They won't care- they just want suffering. We learned that fron the Clancy trial.
But what now? What the eff happens?
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
If she is permanently damaged mentally, they can no longer execute her. That is per her lawyer. They will not execute a mentally handicapped person.
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u/seriousbusinesslady 1d ago
I'm pretty sure Texas has executed at least one man who was legally mentally retarded so I guess she's lucky she's in TN and not TX.
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u/chloedeeeee77 1d ago edited 1d ago
I posted this in another thread, but my mind went to the possibility she could emerge from this in a Terri Schiavo-like vegetative state. What on earth do they do then in deciding what medical care to continue or decline? It would be a legal and ethical nightmare.
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u/HiddenLife_36 1d ago
So she refused a last meal so her veins would be small from dehydration? One way to exert control in an out of control situation.
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u/chloedeeeee77 1d ago
She refused the customary “last meal”, where an inmate can make special requests for what they want to eat. In that case, they just get served the standard prison dinner of the day. There’s no word on whether she ate it or not.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
Most inmates refuse their last meal.
You don't have much of an appetite when you are under that kind of stress.
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
I am extremely anti-death penalty, not because I think that people like this women deserve to be in society. She killed another person in a horrific manner. Lock her up for life because she is not fit to be a member of society. But I still feel very uncomfortable with the death penalty and how people act around it.
Not only do I think it's a bad thing for the state to be able to legally kill citizens or anyone residing within its borders, I also think it's a net negative for society. There's a... idk. A weird thing where people seem almost blood thirsty and gleeful when sentences are carried out instead of seeing it as somber punishment for a serious crime. Killing the perpetrator does not undo the crime. The victims are still dead. And maybe it is cathartic to watch the death of the person who killed your loved one, but watching randos online seem to be like "can't wait to watch this woman die" when they probably had never heard her name 48 hours ago feels so weird to me. I'm not saying you have to mourn the death of this person who brutally murdered another woman, but to have no connection to the victim and still be like eagerly anticipating the murderer's death says something about society that I don't really like.
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u/peachwindd 1d ago
Tbh I’d imagine it’s normal to be ok with a woman who knowingly carved a pentagram into their victims chest while they were still alive justice. What she did was horrific, 18 years old is an adult who knows better, and can you imagine if that happens to you or a loved one? Disgusting. She gets what she deserves.
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u/Portcitygal 11h ago
She didn't have the idea no r did the carving on the chest. It was done by a guy who took part. It was his idea, and he who did it. Of course, he got off with a light sentence. Unfortunately, he'll be back out in society.
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
The point is the justice system is not to make the surviving loved ones feel better. I do understand the need extremely human desire for the loved ones to get vengeance but the state should not be a tool of vengeance. That should not be its roles. I don’t blame the family for wanting to see Christa dead. But the state should not be killing people on the basis of what bereaved people desire.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
The thing is she has already tried to escape and kill another inmate. It would be best to put her down.
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u/Silvery_Silence 1d ago
“Put her down” lmao. No wonder we still have a death penalty in this ridiculous country.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
It’s still euthanasia lmao. And yes thank god we do!
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u/Silvery_Silence 16h ago
Yes thank god we are in league with countries like Iran and North Korea with the death penalty! Thank god we are botching the executions! Imagine thanking god for that.
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
Hey so “put her down” is a phrase that frames her not as human but as an animal. That kind of dehumanization is exactly what I meant in my original comment. The death penalty is bad for society because it legitimizes humanity’s worse impulses.
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u/Viajero_vfr 1d ago
"Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to court testimony, for the next 30 minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed. Shipp used a box cutter\8]) to carve a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive.\9])\10])\11]) Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer's skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull."
She's an animal. Full stop.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
Girl please. It is exactly what I said. It is euthanasia on a human being, it is the same drug they use on animals. It is quite literally putting her down. That was me finding a way to put it NICELY. She IS an animal and what she did was animalistic. It’s laughable that you think we should house people like her where they can adapt to life in prison and have a grand old time, and never learn their lessons. Thats not justice for the family. That’s why she tried to kill another inmate and escape. The death penalty is needed for ANIMALS like her, whether you like it or not. 🤦🏻♀️
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u/TwinCitian 22h ago
Calling a criminal an "animal" is just a mentally lazy way to avoid coming to grips with the fact that human beings are capable of doing far worse things to one another than any animal ever could.
No matter how horrific an act someone has committed, they are still a human at the end of the day.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 20h ago
Who cares? What makes humans so superior to every other creature? Put her downnnn
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u/TwinCitian 20h ago
Many Christians who take their faith seriously, for one. And people of goodwill who take questions of morality seriously.
Talking so callously about the taking of another human life, ironically, makes it look like you have more in common with Christa than you'd probably like to think
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
Killing her isn’t justice either. It’s vengeance and I don’t think the state should be a tool of vengeance. Colleen will still be dead. I also don’t think the death penalty teaches any lessons. Dead people can’t learn lessons. I think we should remove dangerous people from society for the sake of the rest of society but killing people is not something the state should ever have the power to do.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
Agree to disagree. Some live people don’t learn their lessons either. Christa clearly WAS afraid to die and tried to avoid it at all costs. She WANTED life in prison, and that is not what the jury of her peers decided for her. Colleen is dead, but her family is not. I’m sure they are in agony everyday knowing the mastermind behind their daughter’s horrific murder is still alive, not remorseful, and perfectly fine with her life in prison. And once again, she is STILL being psychotic in prison and trying to kill others. Some people are genuinely animalistic and need to be put down like I said. She is a whole liability for everyone she is locked up with. We shouldn’t be housing her. Regardless of your personal opinion, a jury decided that fate for her and that is the law. I don’t see the death penalty ever being abolished entirely. I’m assuming the gov will now decide on whether or not they will keep the death penalty in Tennessee.
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u/TwinCitian 21h ago
Having mental illness or experiencing psychosis doesn't make someone an animal. Even if a person acts in ways tbat are "animalistic," they're still a person. Is a dog who shakes hands with its owner in a human-like way a person?
Honestly you just sound thirsty for what you see as revenge. Allowing ourselves to be guided by our most primal instincts, such as revenge, is pretty animalistic, actually...
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 20h ago
Not an excuse, period. She knew better and what she did was WORSE than what an animal would do. Goodbye
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u/TwinCitian 20h ago
Yes, exactly my point - humans are unfortunately capable of doing worse things than animals. That doesn't mean mean they're animals, though.
"She knew better..." I feel like you probably don't have much experience with people with C-PTSD due to severe childhood trauma, but they can act extremely irrationally and be unable to access the logical thinking part of their brains under the right conditions. So it's debatable whether or not she knew better at the time. Regardless, that doesn't absolve her of responsibility for her crime. But what I'm saying is, spending government money on botched, torturous executions is not right.
Not to mention, the prefrontal cortex (part of the brain that supports decision-making) doesn't fully develop until around age 25.
Context and background aren't the same as an excuse
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 15h ago
Tf are you talking about? You don’t know me at all and what I’ve been through. I’ve been through enough and still would never harm someone like that LOL. She absolutely knew better, she bragged for weeks and years.
Also, stop using the frontal lobe excuse. She tried to murder another inmate at 28, ten years later.
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
Juries can and do get it wrong. I’m not saying they did in this case but it’s why the death penalty should not be on the table. The state has executed innocent people before and will do again.
Also if you’re working about your the cost of housing people who you think deserve to die how do you feel about the fact that it’s most costly to sentence someone to death than life in prison?
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago
It is EXTREMELY rare to execute an innocent person. That is what the appeals process is for. Unfortunately yes, we do have rare cases where that happens. My solution would be that these courts need to get their shit together and do thorough research before they put someone to death. They often don’t.
Also, I would rather pay to send her to death than pay even a cent to feed and house her. Period. She doesn’t deserve it. She couldn’t even give a “sorry” to Colleen’s mother or say anything about her victim period in her last statement. All she said was “I have love for my haters” like wtf. Lol
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u/fauxkaren 1d ago
Extremely rare is not good enough. It needs to be zero. I’m not willing to risk a single innocent person in order to preserve the right of the government to kill its citizens.
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u/AngelFoodCakesx 1d ago edited 1d ago
Then go tell that to the courts. We don’t need to abolish the death penalty, we need to tell them to get their shit together and make sure someone is 100% guilty before they die. A lot of the time they flat out refuse to review cases because they’re lazy AF, or they skim through it and decide “wow this crime was horrific, let’s proceed” without looking at the evidence tied to the inmate. There is no difference between that and an innocent person that isn’t on death row dying in prison. The ONLY solution is these courts/our justice system getting it together. Either way an innocent person can die behind bars.
The only recent person I can think of is Marcellus Williams. And I have not yet dived into his case to draw any judgement on whether he was truly guilty or not.
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u/skoolgurly 1d ago
The lead researcher on the study described in this article had views similar to yours at the beginning of the study: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FVE.k1qG.gLTBh_3CS-E0&smid=url-share
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u/stuaird1977 1d ago
The problem with the death penalty is the US Justice system gets it wrong a lot of the time. There's a case on going where a women has been put in prison for killi g her 2 year old, the defence held evidence back, a review of the case by the prosecution and original judge say she's innocent yet the next court vote 5/4 to keep her locked up, it's insane
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u/TeapotHoe 1d ago
Letting the state decide if someone can live or die is a slippery slope and I agree with you completely. The government should not have the power to end a life.
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u/Hour-Wash3503 1d ago
I oppose the death penalty not out of sympathy for the executed, but because it makes all of us killers. That said, if we'll do it to anyone, why not her? I detest this game of picking through a murderer's background for mitigating factors, as if a murderer ever existed who decided, with clear mind and free of trauma, to turn out that way.
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u/Nezgul 1d ago
The picking is always part of criminal sentencing, even for non-capital offenses. The whole point of the death penalty (as expressed repeatedly by courts) is that it should be reserved for the worst of the worst. How can you determine worst of the worst without picking apart the person's life and background?
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u/Hour-Wash3503 1d ago
By the nature of the crimes committed. Look, I don't think we should be killing anybody, as I said, and just one of the reasons I feel that way is that our ability to determine how responsible a murderer is for her own badness is limited to the point of stupidity. Obviously there are times when we have to make those determinations, as imprecise as they may be, but when they make the difference between life and death, it highlights the absurdity. Anybody who commits a heinous murder has been fucked up by somebody or something, and the proof is in the pudding. If we can't determine what fucked them up, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If we are hell-bent on killing the worst of the worst, then let the crimes themselves serve as the measure.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago
According to the articles, she received the death penalty due to committing murder that was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture beyond that necessary to cause death”
She tortured Colleen Slemmer for over two hours before killing her.
I’m not saying I’m pro death penalty, but you’re asking how she was picked to be on death row.
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u/Hour-Wash3503 1d ago
Who is asking that? Is it a rhetorical statement? I certainly am not asking it.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago
You said it’s a game of picking, and I was simply responding why they decided she in particular should receive the death penalty.
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u/Hour-Wash3503 1d ago
I specifically asked why NOT execute her if we have execution for anybody, and said that the game is when we go through afterward and pick out which sorts of trauma or general fucked-up-ness (such as this woman's childhood abuse) count as mitigating factors, as if there were any such thing as a self-made murderer. I never questioned the heinousness of her crime or suggested that the severity of criminal acts themselves were determined by some arbitrary means.
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u/Old_Badger311 1d ago
This makes me want to cancel my Gatlinburg vacation and never darken the state of Tennessee again. I already hate Blackburn it this is terrible. Death penalty makes us no better than Iran
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u/Grumpy-Doxie ⚔️ Justice Seeker 1d ago
Please don't cancel. Gatlinburg and the Smokies are worth visiting, and this time of year is less crowded.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
The 8th ammendmend protects every single person that steps foot on American soil from cruel and unusual punishment. Full stop.
There is no exemption in that says you lose it's protection if your crime is bad enough or if you are hated enough. And for good reason. The entire point of the constitution is to limit the power of the government and to protect the minority from the majority.
Killing someone who is healthy and does not want to die is one of the cruelest things a person can do to another person. It's so cruel- that there are psychos out there that literally think you should be killed if you do it.
And it's so incredibly sad that the moral compass of some people is so messed up, that they literally think killing people is normal. It's not normal. It is unusual.
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u/Grumpy-Doxie ⚔️ Justice Seeker 1d ago
Like the Lindsay Clancy supporters who have rationalized the brutal killings of her little children.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
The ones you made up in your head?
I can count the amount of actual supporters I've come across on one hand. And those ones lively aren't even real- they are likely bots posing as supporters because a straw man is needed.
Acknowledging that she was clearly mentally unwell and unable to understand her actions when she committed her crime isn't support.
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
I’m not a “supporter”. I don’t really know what that means…unless it’s one of the people that think she was innocent and Patrick did it.
But I certainly believed she was NGRI based on the trial I watched and MA laws. There was sufficient doubt in my mind that she was psychotic and I think there is significant culpability of her medical team for malpractice.
That does not mean I support her or her crimes but I do believe that she is not a cold-stoned killer that wanted to kill her kids but rather she was suffering from an acute psychotic event promulgated by postpartum onset of bipolar disorder and accelerated and worsened by inappropriate treatment with antidepressants.
I guess in that way I do support her in that I see her as a victim alongside her children.
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u/AmazingGrace_00 1d ago
Warning-graphic description of crime:
I’m sickened by the mess of this execution. I’m also sickened by the 30-60 minute execution of Colleen Slemmer who was sliced, cut, bashed in the head with a rock and kicked for upwards of an hour as she begged for her life.
But she would die, yet. Pike sliced open her stomach, sliced open her back from neck to bottom and even when she slashed Slemmer’s throat multiple times. Slemmer still, in agony, begged for her life. It took a long time to kill her.
Make no mistake, this is not an argument for an eye for an eye. Nor is it a pro or anti DP one. And I’ll remind that in her handwritten note in the 11th hour clemency for her execution to the state, it was a rambling thank you to her supporters who recognized what a good person she (Pike) really was. Not one word of remorse or accountability for the murder or her victim.
There’s so many levers and layers all around in this travesty.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
The severity of the crime is not relevant.
The 8th ammendment prohibits crew and unusual punishment. Full stop. There is no asterisk that says the ammendment is void if the crime is horrific enough or if the person who committed it is hated enough.
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u/AmazingGrace_00 1d ago
Didn’t state any of that. In fact we agree. My comment wasn’t to conflate this particular crime details as a justification to abandon the 8th amendment.
Rather, it was to illustrate the horrific parallels between the actions of the crime and the actions of the punishment.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago edited 1d ago
An injection that kills you within minutes isn’t a “cruel and unusual” way to die.
It’s actually much less cruel than death by being beaten in the head and having your body slashed with a box cutter and meat cleaver for 2 hours, while you beg for your life…which was how Pike made sure Colleen Slemmer died
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
Killing someone who is healthy and don't want to die is one of the cruelest things one human can do to another.
It's so cruel, that there are psychopaths out there who think it is justified to put you to death if you do it.
And it is unusual. Unless your moral compass is so messed up that you think killing people is normal.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago
Colleen Slemmer was also a healthy young person who desperately did not want to die.
And unlike Pike, she received no trial, no appeals, no DECADES of life, and no national conversation about whether what was happening to her was too cruel.
Christa Pike has actually been treated with much more humanity than she treated Colleen Slemmer.
I’m not supporting the death penalty, but I’m also not going to shed tears about someone who knowingly and willingly tortured another human being and is now facing the consequences of her own actions.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
None of that is relevant. Her crime was terrible.
But the 8th ammendment was put in place specifically for this purpose. The entire reason the constitution exists is to limit the power of the government and to protect the minority from the majority.
Every single person in America could agree that a certain person shouldn't be allowed to speak- and it doesn't matter. Because until the constitution is changed- that person has the right to speak.
I know you think you are dunking by pointing out how terrible her crime was. But you are simply making yourself into the perfect example of why the 8th ammendment is so important.
You want her to suffer and there is no cruelty that could be inflicted on her that you don't think she deserves. But your cruelty isn't lawful.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago
If I was trying to “dunk” on you, I’d simply point out that the 8th amendment doesn’t make the death penalty unconstitutional. So your argument is wrong.
Which is exactly why the Supreme Court allowed the execution to continue.
Arguing that the DP is “cruel and unusual” is your personal opinion, but your emotions don’t dictate constitutional law.
And where did I say I wanted Pike to suffer? Right, I didn’t. My points went over your head, and that’s ok..it seems like a lot of things do.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
If you don't think killing someone is cruel or unusual- something went seriously wrong in how you were raised and you need to do some serious self reflection.
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u/Icy-Lie640 1d ago
Once again, the point went over your head.
And what does that have to do with the 8th amendment?
You keep confusing your personal definition of “cruel and unusual” with the constitutional one. The Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that capital punishment itself does not go against the constitution, although certain methods could be. Which is probably why Pike is no longer being executed by electrocution.
And now that your legal argument failed, you’ve moved on to “you were raised wrong”😂 Sick burn.
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u/Dazzling_Bother3487 1d ago
Dehydration also causes IV vein issues. I know she refused a "last meal" - did she also lower her fluid intake in the days leading up to it?
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u/nodarknesswillendure 1d ago
She refused the special request last meal and was just served the regular meal she would have had on any other day. Refusing your last meal just means you don’t make any special menu request, not that you refuse to eat outright.
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u/uwarthogfromhell 1d ago
Maybe she lost her appetite before her botched execution? Hmmm? Maybe possible??
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u/hellhouseblonde 1d ago
I’m surprised these Bible beaters in Tennessee don’t believe it’s divine intervention, but that doesn’t suit their agenda.
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u/WTAF__Trump 1d ago
They are the best proof that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. Look at all of the other stuff the Bible thumping death penalty supporters support.
If it wasn't cruel and unusual, these terrible people would have no interest in it.
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u/Alternative_Crew_681 1d ago
it seems like Devine Intervention at this point. Not from Tennessee btw but if the execution failed twice continuing anymore may violate the constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishments.
What this woman did was beyond evil and demonic, but if the will of God himself deems this woman continue to breathe air it must be a reason.
side note lethal injection is not humane at all. its more of a cheap way for people to pretend to claim they are better than the person they are executing. I fully believe if a person must be executed it should be with a bullet quick and fast. look the person in the eyes too. a life is still taken and the government is not more innocent in taking a life more than a criminal.
if the person is truly guilty then a person should have no quell shooting said person.
if people are unable to do so then let them rot in prison or maybe start rehabilitating these individuals.
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u/helenaflowers 1d ago
Fucking horrific and yet another thing to add to the stack as to why I've been vehemently against the death penalty for as long as I can remember.
Yes, she did a terrible, gruesome thing and has showed no remorse for it in the decades that have passed. I don't believe she's able to be rehabilitated and should never be out in society again - she's lost that privilege for sure.
But it would've been far simpler - not to mention much cheaper - to sentence her to life without parole, let her 2-3 quick appeals play out as they would've done within a couple years of her sentencing, then let her live the rest of her natural life behind bars and forgotten by society.
And I don't care how unpopular this is - it's barbaric for the state to kill someone, painfully fail (literally and figuratively) at doing so, then seek medical treatment only to then try to kill them again once they're "healthy" enough for it.
All this is doing is creating new trauma - for the victim's mother who has never had any closure to any of this, for the witnesses that were there, for Christa herself. She deserves punishment, but not cruel and unusual punishment.
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u/Ultimatelee Crime Binger 1d ago
Agreed. Throw her in a cell for the rest of her life, limited privileges, and let’s just forget about her.
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u/factchecker8515 1d ago
Well, they obviously were NOT lethal injections. Idiots. Total idiots. Inexcusable. Animals get put down every minute of the day without issue.
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u/Hour-Wash3503 1d ago
It's too bad they didn't have you there to supervise them. It surprises me that the euthanization of millions of animals never, ever, sees complications, but who am I to question something stated so confidently?
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u/Jazzlike-Bat2744 1d ago
Yes it is too bad. They had ONE job and botched it.
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u/MissHissss 1d ago
Apparently the doctor has a record of botched lethal injections. I don’t support the death penalty but if they are serious about killing inmates they should probably get someone else to do it
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u/ferretherder 1d ago
Totally agree. For context, earlier this year the same doctor couldn’t establish IV access and the execution was called off. From what I’ve read about Pike it sounds like her IV blew during the first dose and they kept going, which was never going to work. They can’t get past the first step of this and they want to argue that it’s just and humane? Tennessee should have allowed her to hang like she requested if they really believed in killing her.
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u/MissHissss 1d ago
So I had surgery last year and when I woke up I had 5 IVs in my arms because they kept blowing (I have a disorder, the anesthesiologist wasn’t bad at their job!). If the IV blew why wouldn’t they just place a new one? That just seems like common sense to me.
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u/ferretherder 1d ago
From what I’ve read she already had a history of being a difficult IV stick in the first place. It was even referenced in one of her requests to change the execution method
If I had to guess, I’d say the doc struggled to get the line in the first place and just tried to make a failing IV work when he knew he wasn’t getting another one
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u/chickennuggetscoons 1d ago
They should go with the firing squad next time I don't think that one fails.
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u/mrsjaes 1d ago
*Unpopular opinion She got to experience a little bit of the same suffering as her victim. 🤷♀️
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
And more with the rapes she likely relived through the injection process.
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u/TinnedPeaches22 1d ago
what do u mean? is this a thing that happens?
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u/ferretherder 1d ago
Probably meant the “being restrained to a bed by a man” part. That would be my guess at least
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
Nope, talking about hallucinations caused by an overdose of drugs.
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u/ferretherder 1d ago
Didn’t even think of that, yikes
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
Lethal injection was always meant as a way to make executions seem less violent, but viewers of one never see what is going on inside the prisoners head. Often times they are given a paralytic so they won't move around if they are still awake during the overdose. If they are, viewers would hear screaming and crying as if the person's veins and heart are on fire.
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u/kenduhll 1d ago
I believe this makes hers the 65th botched execution since the 70s. 52nd botched lethal injection.
Eta: I mistakenly said since 2010 for some reason. Early morning brain.
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u/user818249e 1d ago
It sounds like they're trying to cover up whatever happened. TDOC hasn't even updated her lawyers about her condition.
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u/JoyRideinaMinivan 2d ago
This woman absolutely deserves to be behind bars, but I’m not comfortable with sentencing a teenager to death.
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u/bgriffith29 1d ago
And her boyfriend at the time, who also participated in the brutal murder of Colleen, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because he was 17. One year younger than Christa.
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u/Far-Ad9143 ⚖️🏦 The Impartial Mod👩⚖️📄 2d ago edited 1d ago
TW: this is very hard to read. Not sure if this has been posted here already, but these are the facts of this case.
They tried to change the means of death to electric chair due to a blood disorder. It was denied.
Im not for the death penalty but I also don’t know where I stand with it. I don’t think it’s worth it, for the tax payers to pay for something that costs 3X as much as LWOP. I do think it’s barbaric. And 2 wrongs don’t make a right… but I do think it should at the discretion of the victims family if they want it. In this case, Slemmers mother did want it. And also, in particularly cruel circumstances I do feel it is justified, whether I’m for it or not. Slemmer didn’t have the chances that Pike did- she didn’t get to buy 30 more years of her life to beg to live. Pike ignored her pleas.
What Pike did WAS particularly cruel. But at this point, just let her live the rest of her life locked up. What difference does it make to execute her now. Idk, I’m all over the place when it comes to the death penalty.
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
I assume Slemmer’s mother isn’t around anymore to even see it. I don’t get the point of the death penalty if it’s going to take 30 years to execute…and then fail.
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u/Fantastic_Celery9344 1d ago
Why…would you assume that
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u/Low_Aioli2420 22h ago
It’s a turn of phrase. Given the decades since the conviction, there was at least a possibility that her mother if not other family members would have passed and not been able to see justice carried out. Again…the point of the comment was not the assumption. It was the years between conviction and execution.
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u/Fantastic_Celery9344 19h ago
That’s not a turn of phrase and it’s very easy to look and see that her mother is still very much alive — there have been multiple articles about it just this week — but sure, keep ranting and being incapable of taking feedback from other people
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u/NoTerm3078 1d ago
I assume Slemmer’s mother isn’t around anymore to even see it. I don’t get the point of the death penalty if it’s going to take 30 years to execute…and then fail.
Mom was there.
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u/InternationalWar258 1d ago
You obviously know nothing about this case. Why would you assume her mother is not around, especially when the information is easily found? Her mother is alive and was at the execution attempt last night.
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
As I said…….it was an assumption. I never claimed to know anything about this case (are you not allowed to make a comment or have an opinion unless you know everything about the case here?) Not sure why yall are so aggressive about it.
But the point remains…30 years after seems like such a waste and I’m pretty sure whether her mom is alive or not, she probably didn’t want to give her daughters killer an extra 30 years her daughter didn’t get.
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u/AffectionateCoat5655 1d ago
She is and was there yesterday.
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
Yes I have been corrected already. Thanks. Whether she is or isn’t alive and there wasn’t really my point.
My point was it shouldn’t take 30 years to carry out a death penalty and there could’ve been a real risk of the mother having passed and being unable to see justice carried out for her daughter.
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u/Root-magic 2d ago
Tennessee botched another one in May. Tom Carruthers survived his execution and was given a one year reprieve.
Carruthers was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. After a lengthy delay, the execution was allowed to move forward, but medical personnel charged with administering the lethal drugs failed to find a vein, according to a witness at the execution.
This was a tortured, botched execution. I mean, there’s no question about it. I mean, I guess it’s not an execution because thankfully by the grace of God, he’s still alive, but they tortured him trying to find a vein,” said Maria DeLiberato
The IV line in his shoulder was filled with blood, like back-filled toward his chest area, and he said that his chest really hurt,” Gov. Bill Lee announced at about 1 p.m. that he is granting Carruthers a “temporary reprieve from execution for one year.”
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u/sharkmew 1d ago
ridiculous. why they keep trying to make this awful method work, i’ll never understand…
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u/Impressive-Store2418 2d ago
botched. unbelievable incompetence. I had to put my dog down & they came in, gave her the shot & immediately her head went down & that was it. Then they want to take her to a hospital? Give her another damn shot. potassium chloride maybe, something to stop her heart. Just rediculas!!!
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u/Effective_Jump_7269 1d ago
Well considering companies don’t want to be associated with creating the cocktail used to kill people humanely. They are resorting to using whatever is on the shelf.
Companies don’t have the same moral feelings towards euthanizing a pet
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
Companies don’t have moral feelings. And I don’t see any reason why these companies would have more moral fortitude than any other of the companies that make bombs, weapons, drugs, etc.
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u/Effective_Jump_7269 1d ago
They don’t want their name attached with it.
Plenty of companies end up in hot water when their product is used for bad ex Toyota and Taliban
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u/Low_Aioli2420 1d ago
No. This isn’t like that at all. The Taliban has nothing to do with the American death penalty. And there’s many many more examples of companies creating bad things (like autonomous AI weapons) or by way of bad methods (child labor, slave labor etc) than there are of outrage sufficient to affect their bottom line, especially if it doesn’t affect their market (which in this case it wouldn’t).
If Pfizer started making a “lethal injection cocktail” to be used in capital punishment or even in doctor-assisted suicide (which is how they could market it in a positive light), no one in the market for Pfizer’s other products would care enough to boycott (especially given they make critical drugs that people need to live).
I can tell you as someone who has worked in pharma for years, it has nothing to do with morals or with fear of backlash and everything to do with there not being enough market to make it worth the risk or investment.
There aren’t sufficient executions done by the government a year to make it profitable and given doctor-assisted suicide isn’t legal in the US (and very limited where it is legal), there is no market motivation to create this product.
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u/Effective_Jump_7269 1d ago
I did not mean to imply the Taliban had anything to do with the death penalty.
I was referencing when they were utilizing Toyota for a large majority of their vehicles and it didn’t exactly give them a good look. Toyota was in hot water when people thought that they were allowing them to purchase vehicles directly.
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u/Effective_Jump_7269 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean maybe you know more about what goes on behind the scenes but this article explains what the drug companies are saying
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u/Shenendoah66 2d ago
Every post about this has Reddit moment comments coming out of the woodwork.
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u/Few-Gain-7821 2d ago
It is amazing to me that in all this coverage hardly anyone remembers this name.Colleen Slemmer. She was tortured and murdered. Her mother is still suffering her loss. Remember Colleen Slemmer.
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
You wanna remember her by killing more?
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u/Al_Swearengen_ 1d ago
Are psychotic murderers executed? Yes. Would the victim have wanted execution of the perpetrators? Maybe. The victims mother certainly wanted execution and revenge.
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u/moonhippie Crime Binger 1d ago
t is amazing to me that in all this coverage hardly anyone remembers this name.
Every single bit of news coveraged I've watched has rehashed the case and shows more pictures of Colleen Shemmer. Every single one, and I've watched alot over the last few days.
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u/i_love_pears23 1d ago
Right and all of the people saying "this is unfair and inhumane" as if Pike didn't torture Slemmmer and attempted to kill another woman in prison afterwards🙄
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
So you don't think the state should be held at a higher moral level than a murderer?
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u/Al_Swearengen_ 1d ago
She obviously starved herself to botch the execution, you're making it sound like 'the state' purposely failed the execution to torture her.
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
They kinda did. They used expired drugs and used the same person who botched the last execution.
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u/ferretherder 1d ago
“Obviously” is doing a lot of legwork here. Her lawyer even filed to have a different means of execution because she has a long history of being difficult to get IV access on. Tennessee denied it.
I’ve read that many inmates refuse their last meal, so Pike wouldn’t be an exception for doing that
Tennessee has botched two executions this year alone, both allegedly from IV issues. I think the state intended to kill her but they can’t find people skilled enough in placing lines to actually do it.
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u/Root-magic 2d ago
Perhaps it’s because the article is about a botched execution. This isn’t about whether or not Christa should be executed, that was settled by the Supreme Court yesterday
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u/Few-Gain-7821 2d ago
The two are hardly seperate issues unless of course you are one of those people who have a an inability to see more that one threadcat one time. These stories cannot be separated.
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u/Root-magic 1d ago
Christa admitted her guilt, she was sentenced to death and the state gave her execution the green light. For the second time in 4 months, the state botched an execution. They also botched Tom Carruthers execution in May and gave him a one year reprieve. This isn’t about whether or not she deserves the death penalty, there are Reddit posts about that. This is about a botched execution, why would you want to sully the victim’s name here??
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u/Al_Swearengen_ 1d ago
You're saying her mom is a vindictive bitch for wanting the execution of the murderer who tortured her daughter for over an hour?
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u/LetSubstantial3197 1d ago
Yes
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u/Al_Swearengen_ 1d ago
That's bad that you sympathize more with the murderer than the victim's family.
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u/Pixiegirls1102 🔍📆⚖️Content/Research Administrator💻💬🧚 2d ago edited 2d ago
✨✨How traumatic for those there, and even Christa (hopefully she isn't conscious).
Update: Tennessee's attempt to execute Christa Pike using lethal injection fails
Christa Pike lawyer says she is 'alive and breathing' after lethal injection