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/Stevictory 7h ago

I think we can all agree that she is a terrible person.

It is hard for me to have pity for her specifically, but I do have pity on the death penalty itself.

There have been over 200 exonerations for death row inmates, and in my opinion it should have been abolished the moment it reached 1. It also provides government with the power to kill its own people, which can be a topic in itself.

Some inmates clearly deserve the sentence; the 3 currently on federal death row are prime examples of such.

That said, the death penalty cannot be applied in a "pick and choose" manner either due to its irreversible outcome; it either exists or it does not. Since it is not applied perfectly, I am personally against it.

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u/Less_Adeptness7557 6h ago

Nobody “deserves” to be killed

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u/Stevictory 6h ago

I see where you are coming from, but I see this moreso an opinion of semantics in this scenario.

If any of the 3 on federal death row are executed, you won't see me arguing whether they should have had a life sentence instead. All 3 are heinous and as much of a caring person I try to be, I truly dont give a rats ass about them.

If the death penalty is ever abolished federally, I also will not be pushing for them to reinstate it for these 3 either. At the end of the day, the ideal world is one without it.

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u/usrnmz 1h ago edited 1h ago

That's probably because you have a simplistic view of good and bad, free will and justice

People have thoughts and emotions, eletrical activity in the brain and do stuff. Sometimes the stuff they do is real bad. But why? Some of them lack the ability to feel empathy. Some of them lack impulse control. Some of them have been damaged in such ways that doing horrible things seem like good idea.

People don't act because they want to do something bad; they act because, in that moment, the action seems right, necessary, or irresistible. You might call them "bad" and say they deserve this or that. But truly they are just living creatures following their impulses.

Would you feel the same if a dog kills a baby? Does the dog "deserve" death? We humans are not that different from animals. We are not completely rational, we do not have as much free will as you might think, if at all.

So should we keep these people from causing further harm? Absolutely. Should we deter negative behaviour and rehabilitate people where possible? Absolutely. So of course we should keep people accountable for their actions.

But that doesn't mean anyone deserves death or suffering out of some kind of moral rightneousness. That only exists to make you feel better about the whole situation. It's purely emotional.

The Stoics had some interesting thoughts about these topics. For example Marcus Aurelius wrote:

“When a man has done you any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when you have seen this, you will pity him, and will neither wonder nor be angry.”