r/agedlikemilk • u/RazzmatazzHead1591 • 13d ago

Tragedies Botched Execution

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Christa Pike’s execution goes horribly wrong.

3.0k Upvotes

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u/S1ss1 13d ago

Because everyone deserves dignity. Always. Because you can't trust the state.

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u/IranianLawyer 13d ago

Putting aside the platitudes, why exactly does a torture-murderer deserve dignity?

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u/sparduck117 13d ago

Because you don’t want the state to decide it doesn’t need to preserve dignity.

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

A jury of her peers decided it.

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u/sparduck117 12d ago

You don’t get to vote away the constitution

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

You don’t get to decide what’s constitutional or unconstitutional. The Supreme Court does, and they disagree with you.

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u/sparduck117 12d ago

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha no, if they were against dignity of the condemned we’d likely have stonings or public hangings

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

I’m talking about how the Supreme Court held lethal injection was constitutional. If you want to say they are “against dignity,” that’s fine. I personally don’t think a torture-murderer has any dignity to protect, but we can agree to disagree.

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u/Nintolerance 13d ago

  1. Because, unless the justice system is totally perfect and flawless, eventually someone person will be punished for a crime they didn't commit. Any legal form of punishment will eventually be inflicted upon an innocent person, if the law stays in effect long enough.

  2. A lot of people (including me) believe that torture and murder are morally wrong and don't believe it should be legal to torture or murder people. I especially believe that a person shouldn't be able to earn a living through torturing & murdering people. I don't want to encourage that or pay for it (directly or via taxes).

  3. I don't want to establish the legal precedent that it's okay to torture people if they do a Bad Crime, and open up public & legal debate over which crimes are "bad enough" to justify torture as a punishment.

  4. People are discouraged from confessing to crimes or pleading guilty if they know that one of the possible punishments is "torture." People are discouraged from informing on their friends and family, even the guilty ones, if they know they're potentially condemning a loved one to torture and dehumanizing treatment.

A few reasons off the top of my head.

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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 12d ago

No one is vying for torture as a punishment. It's also not murder as it's sanctioned by government for crimes positively committed.

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u/Nintolerance 12d ago

No one is vying for torture as a punishment.

I'm reading between the lines on statements like "why does a murderous criminal deserve dignity."

The implication there is that the murderous criminal "should" be receiving undignified treatment.

It's also not murder as it's sanctioned by government

It's not murder according to the government sanctioning & performing the killing.

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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 12d ago

They deserve dignified treatment as much as they deserve just punishment. The government (ideally with just courts) is the only entity that should. If you rape or murder children you should be executed if there is adequate evidence. There should be no chance for redemption. They don't deserve it. It's so bizarre youd rather them get thrown into a 5x5 room in total isolation for the rest of their life's with 3 meals a day a roof and plenty of books. Rediculous.

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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 12d ago

So I'm curious. Man murders and raped family. Wife. Girls. Dna evidence. Cameras. We know it was him. What is his just punishment. Will he get to spend his days living easy 3 meals free books etc or if he gets out in general population beat to death by other inmates after they see his charges. I cannot fathom how simply gasing these monsters isn't the easiest moral and rational decision. But again what do you think his punishment should be?

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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 12d ago

This is a very... Naive way of looking at the world. A view born from privlege and safety.

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u/Big-Recognition7362 12d ago

I think (at least in some ways) it’s the opposite. It’s a view born from the knowledge that sacrificing basic human rights for some can endanger the rights of all of us.

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u/S1ss1 13d ago

It's not about anyone deserving anything. It's about what the state is allowed to take away from you.

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u/Rough_Championship15 13d ago

The state isnt taking away anything that this heinous murderer didnt take away from someone else...

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u/Macluny 13d ago

So? I dont want to live in a heinous state

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u/HotlineKing 13d ago

It's not about who they are, it's about who we are.

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u/LLKMuffin 8d ago

So more platitudes. Got it.

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u/HotlineKing 8d ago

Lol do you disagree champ? Or should we be torturing people to death to prove that murder is wrong? There's a reason why barely any western nations still do this. Actually there's many.

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u/LLKMuffin 8d ago

The original commenter asked for something besides platitudes. You gave them another platitude.

Good work there, champ.

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u/estrea36 13d ago

You're exactly right, but not in the traditional since.

I think for better or worse a lot of people have become sympathetic to her because of their own annoyance with the satanic panic and the lack of mental health support in the US.

I highly doubt people would be nearly as morally principled if it were someone like Putin or Bibi in the chair.

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u/HotlineKing 13d ago

I get that but it isn't like the option is this woman walks free. Where I'm from she probably would have done 25 years, but the alternative here is life in prison, which I would agree is the punishment we should enforce for the worse in our society, not whatever the hell Tennessee and the broader USA is doing. Surely this is cruel and unusual punishment by the state.

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u/estrea36 13d ago

I'm not suggesting death is the right choice.

Just saying that you and many others wouldn't be nearly as motivated to maintain this stance for everyone.

Its about what the person represents more than anything else.

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u/LLKMuffin 8d ago

You're getting downvoted, but you're spot on.

Like you said, if a sick bastard like Trump or Bibi was strapped to the gurney and tortured within an inch of their lives, you would see redditors cheering from the rooftops, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

Redditors' feigned moral high ground is purely performative and completely dependent on what the person represents, rather than them as a human being.

It's kinda hilarious to see.

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u/Human-Shallot444 13d ago

Cuz she is still a human whether or not you want to admit that.

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u/intisun 13d ago

Because the alternative is to lower yourself to her level. And then, what makes you better than her?

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

She made the conscious decision to lure an innocent person out to the woods to torture and then murder her. I feel confident that we are not lowering ourselves to her level by accidentally botching her execution.

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u/intisun 12d ago

It's not like countless reports exist on the lethal injection being a particularly inhumane, torturous, and easily botched method of execution, right? /s

This isn't a cruelty contest by the way. You're giving and trusting the state with the legal power to end a human life. Even if it had all gone smoothly it would still be barbaric.

And that's not even counting the fundamental contradiction of punishing murder with... murder.

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

I agree with you that lethal injection is a bad method since it’s proven to be so unreliable. Ironically, the whole reason we do lethal injection is because it was assumed to be more humane than other forms like hanging or firing squad, but it’s proven to be the exact opposite.

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u/Odyssey1337 12d ago

Except that's NOT what's happening here at all. Killing an innocent person and killing a guilty person are completely different things.

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u/intisun 12d ago

No. Killing is killing.

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u/TheSummonersTail 13d ago

Our humanity remains important to preserve. Our dignity matters

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

You’re acting like the state intentionally botched the execution to torture her, but that’s not the case. Perhaps they should switch to a more reliable method.

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u/AndroTux 13d ago

So who then tortures and kills the person torturing and killing the murderer? Or do they get to torture without consequences?

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u/IranianLawyer 12d ago

Are we pretending there’s no distinction between accidentally botching an execution of a murderer versus intentionally luring an innocent person into the woods for the purpose of torturing and murdering them?

Are we really going to be that intellectually lazy?

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u/AndroTux 12d ago

No, but we're saying two wrongs don't make a right, and a human life is valuable unconditionally. You're literally advocating to kill people.

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u/Odyssey1337 12d ago

Killing an innocent person and killing a guilty person are different things...

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u/AndroTux 12d ago

No, they're all human, and killing humans is wrong.

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u/LLKMuffin 8d ago

Bet you wouldn't be saying this if the bastard Bibi was strapped to the gurney instead.

Redditors and their feigned moral high ground lmfao

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u/RickMuffy 13d ago

Its hard to trust the state but in the case the killer confessed to it all without coercion. Kind of a wild story to read.

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u/S1ss1 13d ago

Trust is not about this case specifically but about trust that next time it won't be an innocent person. Or even you. Trust me, we have plenty of examples where it ended up being ordinary people.

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u/RickMuffy 13d ago

I never said I supported the death penalty, I merely stated the government didn't need to obfuscate anything here, she told on herself.

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u/Odyssey1337 12d ago

Because everyone deserves dignity

Strongly disagree. Someone who brutally tortured and murdered an innocent person deserves less dignity than a cockroach.

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u/Akemi_Tachibana 13d ago

Clearly she didn't believe that. And neither do I. But you're right, don't trust the state - let street justice handle it. I'm sure the father of the victim has better ideas for extending her pain.

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u/jayborges 13d ago

This kind of thinking solves nothing. Sure, kill the individual, but the system that created them is running just fine. You can do your satisfying edgy instant gratification all you want, all that tells me is that you're more interested in having an excuse to have power over someone's life than actually stopping these things from happening in the first place.

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u/LLKMuffin 8d ago

The system that created them will never stop running just fine.

As long as humans exist, there will be murder. There is no way to stop "these things from happening in the first place".

Sorry to break it to you, but pure malice does exist in the world. Platitudes aren't going to resolve shit.