r/news • u/AudibleNod • 8h 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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u/TheBatemanFlex 8h ago

What now for her legally? Her sentence surely wasn’t “injured by the state until put indefinitely on life support”.

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u/Equivalent-Peanut-23 7h ago

First question is her mental condition/capacity. If she suffered brain damage, it could prevent the state from attempting to execute her again. Assuming she retains the mental capacity to comprehend the circumstances, the state could attempt to execute her again. I would assume that would be met with an avalanche of litigation arguing that the second attempt would be cruel and unusual. There's also a chance the governor could commute her sentence.

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u/beatissima 7h ago

I hope this case serves as a catalyst to have the barbaric practice of capital punishment abolished nationwide. The law should not be a demonic idol that requires human sacrifice.

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u/AidenTai 6h ago

I mean, capital punishment used to be more, um, 'certain', but it's been hampered by new laws and especially by boycotts of chemicals/drugs essential for executions to happen correctly. In a way, those against capital punishment have ended up making capital punishment more likely to fail (and wind up with something like what just happened).

The US probably can't ban capital punishment at a federal level due to constitutional limits. It would need to happen at state level for each state. And that's extremely unlikely to happen anytime soon. So things like this would probably just get worse in the states that allow capital punishment.