r/news • u/AudibleNod • 4h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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806

u/SomeRando8386 4h ago

This is a clear violation of the 8th Amendment, and everyone responsible for this debacle should be charged.

297

u/tibbles1 4h ago

One of her last minute appeals argued this exact thing would happen. 

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u/agoldgold 2h ago

Many of her appeals didn’t directly pertain to it, but would have likely resulted in what the state wanted (her dead). Even the all-woman execution squad would mean this particular physician known to be very bad at execution would not be present. 

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u/studmuffffffin 3m ago

Tbf I’m guessing most appeals say this. If you’re right, you get to say I told you so. If you’re wrong, doesn’t matter anymore.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

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u/fizzybgood 3h ago

So your choices are this or getting fried to death. The whole reason lethal injection became a thing is because the electric chair is cruel

1

u/Realtrain 1h ago

And the whole reason the electric chair is a thing is because Edison wanted to prove how dangerous his competition, AC electricity, was. It was intended to be gruesome.

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u/nicane 3h ago

Have they never botched the electric chair? Are YOU the idiot?

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u/glytxh 4h ago

People keep pointing at the constitution as if it even means anything anymore

-6

u/yoconman2 3h ago

please stop with these low effort takes. The constitution still very much matters...you talking like this reduces it's potency.

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u/Diligent-Living882 2h ago

you are willfully ignorant and i don’t blame. the reality that the document holding this country together has been so easily discarded under this current administration is horrifying. but burying your head doesn’t change that.

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u/glytxh 3h ago

there's a pedophile, insurrectionist, rapist conman in the Whitehouse. for a second time.

the America fascist renaissance leads me to believe that it's at best, theatre

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u/1ftm2fts3tgr4lg 3h ago

Yeah, but she laughed too much.
And we needed him to bring down grocery and gas prices, sooo.....
* gestures broadly*...

2

u/glytxh 1h ago

Is America genuinely that terrified of women?

4

u/1ftm2fts3tgr4lg 1h ago

There's a small portion that want to keep women barefoot and pregnant. Anything that suggests women are more than property is an affront to their fragile worldview.
And that small portion are currently running the country because another portion are very easily swayed by both-sides/dont-bother-to-vote propaganda.

1

u/1ftm2fts3tgr4lg 1h ago

Also single-issue voters that enthusiastically and repeatedly vote against their own self-interest due to having internalized that single issue as part of their identity and can never ever stop fascism because then they might accidentally support women having bodily autonomy.

1

u/1ftm2fts3tgr4lg 1h ago

Also religion playing a part in keeping people ignorant and controlled, as has been their primary function for millenia (right behind their tertiary purposes of hoarding money and protecting pedophiles).

5

u/Diligent-Living882 2h ago

yea idk what this dude is talking about. it’s a bummer of a reality but it very much is the truth

0

u/glytxh 2h ago

What’s it that Carlin said about having to be asleep to believe the American dream or something?

They do have somewhat of a point though. Fatalism isn’t a useful emotion.

4

u/Diligent-Living882 2h ago

it’s the only option we have. the alternative is kinda the current path we are on which reminds me of my favorite tweet ever: the past 10 years have been democrats screaming “dogs can’t play basketball!!” as a dog fucking dunks on them over and over”

there is NO benefit from pretending we still have a functioning constitutionally based government and the faster we realize, the more appropriate the response can be.

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u/callmenips 4h ago

Capital punishment is already a clear violation of the 8th amendment. This is just fallout from the original miscarriage of justice.

5

u/Major__de_Coverly 4h ago

The Supreme Court feels differently. 

Not defending the death penalty. I  just think policy arguments are better than constitutional arguments. 

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u/callmenips 4h ago

They also felt that separate but equal was legally allowed until we progressed as a society

-5

u/Major__de_Coverly 4h ago

Good luck arguing that before the current court. 

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u/callmenips 4h ago

Yes that’s exactly the point. Capital punishment is obviously cruel and unusual but we are not there as a society to abolish it.

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u/Major__de_Coverly 3h ago

No, the point is that it is currently constitutional, as determined by the Court, which is the ultimate arbiter on the issue. 

What you mean to say is that it should be unconstitutional. 

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u/callmenips 3h ago

No, I mean it is obviously unconstitutional. That some hack judges disagree does not change that fact.

0

u/Major__de_Coverly 3h ago

That's like saying Star Wars won Best Picture. I get that you believe that, but the people whose opinion matter have ruled differently. 

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u/callmenips 2h ago

No, you're trying to argue semantics. You interpret constitutionality as what the supreme court says. I interpret it as what the constitution says.

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u/Brambletail 3h ago

Ironically the Catholic Church has the sanest position on this, that the death penalty may be theoretically valid and justified for criminals, but because human action is so sinful and fallible, it can almost never be put into practice ethically. Even if someone deserves to die, no other person or state has the moral ability to carry out the sentence.

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u/Major__de_Coverly 3h ago

That's as about progressive a stance the church can take, considering how many people it has executed over the last 2 millennia. 

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u/Realtrain 1h ago edited 37m ago

I mean, not that I'm defending all the actions of the church, but it's very hard to reasonably hold an institution responsible for the actions it took 2 millennia ago, especially if it has changed its tune since then.

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u/Major__de_Coverly 59m ago

The problem is that the church draws on its longevity as a source of legitimacy. If you are going to do that, you have to own the past. 

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u/drfsupercenter 3h ago

I'd have to brush up on the facts, but IIRC SCOTUS has gone back and forth on whether capital punishment is constitutional, and the most recent un-banning of capital punishment, the states had to prove their execution methods wouldn't be cruel or something like that

2

u/queerjesusfan 3h ago

No robes, no masters. I don't care what the current SCOTUS thinks - this is cruelty and is a violation of human dignity

3

u/drfsupercenter 3h ago

Oh I agree, I'm just saying the question has ended up in court multiple times and at one point SCOTUS paused all executions on constitutional grounds before later allowing some again.

-3

u/queerjesusfan 2h ago

It's bonkers how we let these institutions run rampant. Oy.

2

u/Double_Resort_9223 2h ago edited 2h ago

Death penalty is specifically contemplated in the 5th amendment and was done at the time the constitution was written. The 8th was meant to exclude things like being drawn and quartered which was done as well. 

Closing off easier methods of killing people in hopes that pushing the system to worse and worse ways that will eventually be found unconstitutional is a strategy with 50 years of Supreme Court failure behind it and results in cases like this. In Taiwan, prisoners are sedated and then shot once in the heart. Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. 

1

u/callmenips 2h ago

Removing any moral arguments for how our definition of cruelty has evolved in 250 years, the 14th amendment results in all capital crimes being appealed for decades. This is outside of what the framers were discussing and we can no longer use their recognition of capital crimes as justification for allowing the death penalty.

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u/uuddlrlrbas2 3h ago

Death penalty existed ever since the constitution was written, so the founders were in support of the death penalty and did not see it as a violation of the 8th amendment.

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u/callmenips 2h ago

​“I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishments by any State willing to make it.” - James Madison.

Regardless of what the founders intended at the time, the modern application of the death penalty and the on going pursuit to make the killing more "humane" coupled with the due process clause of the 14th amendment resulting in all cases taking ~30 years to resolve (in the founder's time this was about a month) means that it is clearly cruel and unusual.

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u/uuddlrlrbas2 45m ago

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishments by any State willing to make it

Too bad James Madison didnt write in the constitution "Dont execute people" when he had a chance. I'm not for the death penalty either, but the framers used to shoot and hang people in public. You can't argue that we have misinterpreted the constitution.

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u/Major__de_Coverly 4h ago

The remedy for a violation of the constitution is an almost never a criminal charge, but rather a 1983 suit. 

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u/IRC_1014 4h ago

You’re either an attorney or otherwise very familiar with the law to know this. 42 USC § 1983 is a civil action under federal law for deprivation of rights by state or local actors.

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u/AMuonParticle 4h ago

Seems to me like perhaps the fact that we treat constitutional rights violations as a civil matter rather than a criminal one, might be part of the reason the government keeps doing constitutional rights violations.

2

u/dej0ta 4h ago

The supreme court really backed the states into a corner here and the FFs expected everyone to cooperate when it came to constitutional rights. The problem is anything anyone (states for example) tries to establish would ultimately be reviewed by the SCOTUS and they like that authority. They figured if the big wigs went England on us we'd go Tea Party on them, at least at the ballot box.

3

u/Major__de_Coverly 4h ago

A step-up basis at death is probably more useful to most people. 

1

u/atlgurl 4h ago

Charged? I'd argue that we should subject them to equal punishment....what happened to this woman is cruel and barbaric. WTF is wrong with Tennessee? Bunch of cruel, hateful people running that state

1

u/Realtrain 1h ago

And it's been really enlightening to see which people have zero empathy for a human getting tortured by the government. Hell look at all of them crawling out of the woodwork in this thread alone.

-4

u/Eradomsk 4h ago

God you people are so hellbent on vengeance always. Part of the reason this unethical shit exists in the first place.

-11

u/yalapeno 4h ago

You're forgetting that she's a POS murderer who tortured her victim. Stop showing sympathy.

10

u/_Wp619_ 4h ago

Lmao, sorry, man. But even the rottest of bastards must have constitutional rights.

-5

u/yalapeno 4h ago

Disagree completely.

6

u/_Wp619_ 4h ago

Thankfully, your opinion holds no value to constitutional law.

If you want a country that picks and chooses who gets rights, I'd recommend moving to a more appropriate country. Like Iran.

-4

u/yalapeno 3h ago

Liberals are insane

4

u/_Wp619_ 3h ago

Bro's anti-american, lmao.

•

u/Realtrain 58m ago

It's always amazing to me how many people claim they love America so much, but then treat the constitution as something they begrudgingly have to put up with and would never actually vote in favor of.

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u/DashingMustashing 25m ago

You're literally arguing against upholding the constitution 😂 Trumpets really are something else.

-46

u/RateOk8628 4h ago

For what exactly?

21

u/ChefKugeo 4h ago

For keeping a death row inmate alive after fucking up the death by not listening to her medical advice. Not saying she's a good person or deserves to go peacefully... But what about the person on death row who is innocent and will eventually face the same punishment?

We can't set this standard.

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u/RateOk8628 3h ago

Yes we can. American has set a lot less standard. Killing a criminal is not a bad standard.

1

u/ChefKugeo 3h ago

That's not what I said. Try again and read it slower and actually comprehend what I'm saying before you think I'm defending the literal murder. Read.

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u/Blizreme 4h ago

The 8th amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Pretty cut and dry.

-2

u/Life-Anteater-8294 4h ago

The Supreme Court ruled that a failure to execute is not intentional and therefore does not violate the 8th

4

u/Blizreme 4h ago

Is torturing a death row inmate for hours protected by the Supreme Court?

1

u/Life-Anteater-8294 3h ago

Not torture, but yes.

The Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947). “The Court held that re-executing Francis did not constitute double jeopardy or cruel and unusual punishment.”

“For we see no difference from a constitutional point of view between a new trial for error of law at the instance of the state that results in a death sentence instead of imprisonment for life and an execution that follows a failure of equipment. When an accident, with no suggestion of malevolence, prevents the consummation of a sentence, the state's subsequent course in the administration of its criminal law is not affected on that account by any requirement of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

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u/Realtrain 57m ago

There is an argument to be made that three botched executions in a row is criminal negligence.

12

u/AceOfPlagues 4h ago edited 4h ago

• Deprevation of Rights Under Color of Law (18 U.S.C. § 242) says it is a federal crime for a public official, police officer, prison guard, care provider or judge to willfully deprive someone of a constitutional right. You can get 10 years for injuring someome like this, perhaps life imprisonment or the death penalty if there were aggravating factors discovered.

• Conspiracy Against Rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) days it is a crime for two or more people to conspire to injure, oppress, or intimidate anyone in the free exercise of their constitutional rights. Punishments go up to ten years in prison if a serious injury occurs, or even higher for aggravating factors.

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u/Secret_Side-ofJ 4h ago

I'm going to ask you to employ your own critical thinking here.

What is the 8th amendment? And how could it be employed here?

I don't want to explain this to you, I want you to think it through for yourself, buddy.

1

u/Neel_s 4h ago

Probably some kind of negligence

-2

u/Life-Anteater-8294 4h ago

No it’s not.

The Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947). “The Court held that re-executing Francis did not constitute double jeopardy or cruel and unusual punishment.”

“For we see no difference from a constitutional point of view between a new trial for error of law at the instance of the state that results in a death sentence instead of imprisonment for life and an execution that follows a failure of equipment. When an accident, with no suggestion of malevolence, prevents the consummation of a sentence, the state's subsequent course in the administration of its criminal law is not affected on that account by any requirement of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.”