Is this the woman they tried to lethally inject twice and failed
post
...And justice for all
Death penalty in place of mental health while the bastard pedophiles are elected to positions of power
A society practicing the death penalty will never improve
Pike, who is now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, one of their classmates at Knoxville Job Corps in 1995.
In case anyone else was curious about the crime she committed
They also tortured her a bit before the murder:
According to court testimony, for the next 30 minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed. Shipp used a box cutter to carve a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive. Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer's skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her.
Makes you wonder what Slemmer did to provoke the rage of a mentally ill child, it doesn't usually stem from nothing.
She killed one person and got life? i feel like people do way worse and get less
Why was she imprisoned for 32 years when she was already sentenced to death? What's the point? I don't agree with the death penalty in general, but if you're going to do it, just do it?
Standard practice in the US. You know you will die but you do not know when and in the meantime you rot in jail for decades.
Then sometimes an hour before you will be executed you hear you may get pardoned, and then a few hours later you will be executed anyway.
Execution itself also goes wrong many times.
USA! USA!
Not just imprisoned, she's been in solitary for 30 fucking years.
I'm not excusing what she did, but how is taking someone's life going to bring back the victim, or give closure to the family of the victim? American "justice" is about revenge, not justice. The death penalty should be gone, utterly and completely. It's barbaric.
It's not about either justice or revenge. It's mostly about getting rid of troublesome people, because they're bad for business.
although I agree with most of what you say, death penalties are important to reduce the impact to taxpayer dollars.
no reason to continue rehabilitating a prisoner who is going to spend life in prison for brutally raping a 5 year old. just remove them from the world and move on.
According to recent estimates, the death penalty costs taxpayers 2.5 to 5 times more than life imprisonment.
I did a research report on this in grade school. The costs are mostly tied to the amount of appeals they are mandated to get and the average length of stay before execution.
I came to the conclusion in my research paper that Republicans would likely eventually pass laws to limit the appeals and fast track execution.
I think I got a C on the paper because of the editorialization about what I thought would happen in the future. I am actually surprised it hasn't happened yet.
And despite all those appeals there's about 1-8% rate of wrongful executions. Fucking 1/20 people executed may very well be innocent
There’s a man on death row in Texas named Robert Roberson. He’s come VERY close a few times to being executed (at one point, a few hours) and he’s most likely innocent. He was convicted based on shaken baby syndrome. It’s been disproved a long while ago. Thankfully though he’s getting a new trial and hopefully he’ll be found not guilty. Still sucks that he’s been on death row for decades
Yeah, it's abysmal. The fact that even one innocent person was executed should have shut the whole thing down. But it was never about justice, just expressing power.
No a lot of people do point to some pretty extreme crimes (particularly the weird rape torture serial murderers, especially if their chosen victims were children) as their reason for wanting the death penalty available. Unfortunately though I'm on the side of preventing even one innocent wrongfully sentenced, and I agree that the barriers to that are going to get broken down pretty fast.
Because there just aren’t that many Americans that care about this issue, unfortunately. I’ve had discussions with straight up dreadlocked hippy liberals and they still use the “you’d feel differently if they killed someone in your family” bullshit. No. I wouldn’t because I have a principled stance that the state should not be murdering its citizens. No amount of violent, depraved criminals getting “what they deserved” justifies the death of one falsely accused person, and we are well past one in this fucked up system.
We are a cruel, spiteful, and violent people. Even our granola munching hippies can’t get behind abolishing the death penalty.
And therein lies the true difference between republicans and democrats. One would kill an innocent person just to make sure the other guilty people suffered. Just like they would kill food stamps for hundreds of thousands, just to make sure one person didn't get more than they "deserved." Just like they would deport millions of innocent hard working people just to make sure a few criminals go along with them.
They're comfortable hurting and taking innocent lives, because all of their moral/political values are rooted in hatred, fear, and spite.
source from your source is limited in scope.
FROM AN ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN OKLAHOMA, PREPARED FOR THE OKLAHOMA DEATH PENALTY REVIEW COMMISSION, 2017
your source is also clearly biased.
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) is a national non-profit organization providing the media, policymakers, and the general public with data and analysis on issues concerning capital punishment and the people it affects. For more than 30 years, DPI has been the preeminent national resource for timely and trustworthy information about the death penalty. DPI does not take a position on the death penalty itself but is critical of problems in its application.
Founded in 1990, DPI promotes insightful discourse on the death penalty by curating and presenting expansive, authoritative data from credible sources and offering clear, reliable, and timely information and research about the history and current application of the death penalty. DPI’s careful tracking and analysis of death sentences, executions, legislation, and newsworthy events provides critical context to inform meaningful public debate and sound policy decisions.
meaning the information they provide is forthright and true but their delivery of which is curated and formulated to strengthen their position.
it's clear what their position is once you read a handful of their articles, and they are free to hold that position. however, it's not okay to use them as a definitive source of truth when arguing a point because they obviously have an agenda.
Even if it was true, which it isn't, fuck taxpayer dollars. You don't give your government the power to murder its citizens to save some money.
You don't give your government the power to murder its citizens to save some money.
you clearly haven't been paying attention to government spending for the last century.
Countries who droped penal death have seen the number of terrible crimes reducing. I don't think there is a single example where their number have grown. There are hypothesis to explain it.
Also, the only way to prevent a large abuse of penal death is to keep convicted offenders in jail for a long time before their execution ; which negate the economical argument. It was not acceptable on a moral point of view, but it is not even cheaper.
Something costy and not efficient should be replaced by something cheaper and more efficient. Especially when the second is better on a moral point of view.
Countries who droped penal death have seen the number of terrible crimes reducing.
countries who dropped penal death convictions are more likely to have early intervention programs because their government is focused on social benefits over corporate profits.
just because they have banned death penalties does not mean that it reduced "terrible crimes".
You are right that nothing proves that droping penal death reduces the crimes. There could be no link between both, it could be a pure coincidence happening in the hundred countries droping it.
Also, and despite a constant populist pressure in each of this countries, very few have reintroduced it (and most of them fastly droped it back again).
Of course, some may have droped it out of diplomatic pressure more than for their population... but still, it brings benefices. Sorry, I mean the coincidental effect on crimes is observed ; and so at the very least droping penal death does not rise the numbers nor severity of crimes.
The girl had pretty much the worst life imaginable in any rich country, leading to an extremely predictable outcome.
I've read this exact story many times, and it always ends the same.
For that she gets 32 years of pointless suffering, and then a failed attempt at death penalty.
If only there was money to fund help for such people. Anyway, let's spend another billion dollars on bombing children in Iran.
So dumb. She requested a All female firing squad because she was concerned the injection and her small veins might be an issue.
That's the whole issue. It's like 50% actual narcissists without remorse and 50% just sad circumstances all around.
The death penalty is an extremely cruel way to "get rid of the problem" by fighting the symptom. But to get there, so many things would have gone wrong, and we should always prioritize fixing those things before ever thinking about punishment.
People love retribution but the truth is you can torture a murderer and that still won't bring the victim back and even then that's not satisfying to the victim's family.
Hey, look, cool news and all, oppose the death penalty I guess, but I don't like how the video tries to show her as a frail little girl.
She took her classmate into the woods to torture then kill her.
You don't beat a dog for its entire life and then act surprised when it kills someone.
It's not an excuse, beyond rumblings of materialist determination, but it is an explanation, and you should be asking yourself why this particular murderer has to die instead of all the others.
I'm never surprised about any crimes, certainly the mother shares a lot of responsibility in this, but as a consequentialist I try to make the best use of my time to help the most people, and that does not include advocating for Christa because there are billions of better people more deserving of expending sympathy.
Now, if you came to me and advocated for abolishing the death penalty and enhancing the reform system with free education, therapy, etc: I'm on board. But sure af not because of Christa.
A dog won't torture and get any pleasure from the explicit pain of an innocent for pain's sake. Apples to oranges. Humans are fucked up lol
The video doesn't "try" to show her as anything it just captures a moment in court. You can attribute to it what you want. What I see is the extreme results of bipolar disorder after a lifetime of abuse and lack of treatment. It is a stark example of a society that failed their citizen. Here is someone who had enough humanity somewhere in their system to just cry and want a hug from someone they loved before facing the consequences. I'm not even bipolar but I don't know what kind of human being I would be if I literally faced abuse since infancy.
To me the video doesn't take away the heinousness of the crime, it just brings into the focus how these types of situations aren't always some cut and dry stereotypical "evil person does evil things".
They chose to show this moment. They didn't choose images of the evidence or the grieving family of the murdered child, they chose this. That's "trying" real hard, in my book.
The lack of empathy you show here is similar to the lack of empathy that Christa Pike showed to her victim. You are not so different - but do you have the same traumatic childhood to explain your sociopathy?
Oh, I sincerely doubt Christa's problem was Apathy. Christa likely felt a little too much emotion, like yourself. But the fact that we're flinging that likeness to a murderer at each other like an insult kind of proves my point, no? Not sure how you missed that irony while typing your reply.
I feel like anyone who goes through what she did would likely kill someone at some point in their life.
All of you who think she deserves all of this have been so redpilled you're choking on Raegen pubes.
Any other civilized court would have deemed this guilty by way of insanity and have her sent to get professional help - yet she was denied this.
It all speaks to the barbaric system of "justice" designed for bread and circus, pitchforks and torches - all so a lust for revenge can be satiated.
It is not just and never will be.
The same way she had zero right to decide who lives or dies, the state had zero right too. No questions here, the death penalty is inexcusable under any circumstances. Only under the most extreme cases should it be recognized for protection and self defence but it still shouldnt be celebrated but regarded as a necessary evil. And also yeah, there are cases like "what if i killed hitler" but first of all that would be war and second, thats such an extreme case that you cant make a law arround it. Hitler and similar people represent such a hatefull ideology that them being alive is an active danger to millions of people and an excuse to kill.
if we're going to have a death penalty, it should require the utmost clarity in guilt and mandatory appeals to be resolved in a timely manner - then do it by guillotine. this bullshit of 'humane execution' is garbage whitewashing to help the people who want executions to be somehow clean and tidy - resulting in these shit show performances and drug companies refusing to work with states. afaik guillotine never requires a second try. you can fuck up hangings, hell even firing squads... it's what I'd pick if I were being executed, not really trusting the states that end with these results.
No questions here, the death penalty is inexcusable under any circumstances. Only under the most extreme cases should it be recognized for protection and self defence but it still shouldnt be celebrated but regarded as a necessary evil.
Way to contradict yourself within 2 sentences.
"I can't kill him because it would contradict my stance on the death penalty" -me, getting attacked by a crazy guy with a knife
Not a contradiction at all, and it’s not even all that nuanced either.
There’s a massive difference between death as punishment for a crime versus deadly force to stop someone from killing you first.
One takes place while those involved would otherwise be in relative safety.
The other typically takes place during a tense altercation where moment to moment decisions mean life or death.
It's a contradiction with what they said, but not their intent.
The death penalty is irrelevant to self-defense and protection. The death penalty is literally only a state executing someone as punishment. Self-defense in the moment is not the death penalty. Protecting yourself is not the death penalty.
But that's what the comment said should be allowed in extreme cases for protection and self-defense. The death penalty.
I get what they meant. Killing another human in general should only be an extreme case of self-defense or protection. But they way they worded it would mean allowing the state to execute someone to protect others.
You don't have to have strong opinions and put them on the internet, you know?
It’s sad but world people have as much sympathy for a man on death row? Would they even care to read how bad his childhood was? Most people wouldn’t care. Let’s see if somebody takes up for a condemned man and how much social media attention it gains.
That said, I’m not strictly in favour of the death penalty. No matter what the penalty is, people will commit crimes. But we have to do something. I’m not sure what, though.
This isn't about men. Stop trying to make it about men.
If you're fine with the double standard, just admit it and own it. Nobody's perfect, and in fact, perfect is the enemy of good. If that's your position, defend it. If you can't, you should look at why that is. It's fine if we disagree, and disagreement is good to advance the discourse. We shouldn't be a hive mind online. But defend your position. Explain why it's okay for men to be put to death but not women. Or whatever your point of view is — I don't want to put words in your mouth. Or maybe you don't think it's a double standard. Just explain your position better and defend it. It's also fine to be "wrong" and own that, too. Like, I like pineapple on pizza. I know most don't. But I own it. I'm not gonna convince someone who's never had a great Hawaiian pie that it's pretty good. I don't need to, I like what I like and if that's wrong... I'm not perfect.
Or maybe its just an odd time to bring it up?
Like this is a story about a woman who had a hellish childhood, committed a murder, and has now been on death row for 30+ years, and the state has botched her execution despite warnings and requests of other methods. And most of these comments are not particularly sympathetic. Acknowledging her broken childhood, is not the same as forgiving or forgetting.
And then you come in with a total non-sequitur about double standards for men. Someone said quit changing the subject and you get a whole mini-rant about how they need to defend their position (not even really a position, again they said to not change the subject).
And just to engage with this, there absolutely is a double standard but its not gender like you're stuck on. You can find people sympathizing with men all over. Anytime an accusation is levied at a man, you will see oodles of people decry it, rationalize it, and attack the accuser (man or woman). You will find people attacking women and men, you will find people defending women and men, you will find people refusing evidence, defending lies, sympathizing with, accusing of, and every response under the sun in favor of or against both men and women. This is a people thing, men and women can be both righteous and/or evil, they can be right and/or wrong.
In short, focus on the Person. Someone's genitals should have zero bearing on how you take in any of the information in the OP's post. Even sillier is to bring up the genitals of other parties. Do yourself a favor, and avoid culture war bullshit like that. Its fine to call out double standards when you're seeing it, but to bring it up out of nowhere is proving you're the one with double standards. You wouldn't show up in some dude's execution thread asking about why women get mistreated.
If you do care about injustices, keep your eyes on the ball. Don't get sidetracked by someone's genitals, or what other people thing about them for having said genitals.
Suggesting that nobody cares when a man is put to death is a wild suggestion. So increadibly and maliciously ignorant that I'm stunned.
Sure, there are anti-death penalty groups out there, but most guys who are put to death — in fact, I'd say all of them at this point — don't get the level of scrutiny this case has.
It's just wild to me that a man can shoot a person in the head, execution style (for example) and only the anti-death penalty crowd really objects to his punishment. But most people generally believe that he deserves to pay with his life. A life for a life. I don't personally agree with that, but that's how it goes. Then you get a woman who tortures a teen girl to death, carves her up while she's still alive, and we're gonna pump the brakes because she's female? It's absolutely a double standard.
I'm of the opinion that nobody should be put to death by the state, that the state should be better than that, but let's see how many come out of the woodwork for the next condemned man. See if it's all over the news like this case has been.
Wow. Straight people's right to reproduce should be conditionned to a psychiatric exam. Her mother should have gone to jail. This is fucking heartbreaking.

all 72 comments