Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
State sanctioned murder is the most obvious sign of a people who have mentally yet to leave the cave.
Death sentences as punishment is backwards and counter to the goal. Ending life is not a punishment, it is disposal. At best it is cathartic revenge for the victims and their loved ones. But true punishment would be a long term restriction of rights and reparations through service and financial donation. And really, rehabilitation should always be the primary (if not exclusive) goal of the justice system.
State sanctioned killing of a prisoner should only be performed for compassionate purposes or maaaaaybe in the exceptionally vanishingly rare case that someone is genuinely too dangerous to even keep in prison with others in which case it is more humane than permanent solitary or sedation into catatonia. And, in either case, it should be heavily regulated and only allowable if medical and mental health professionals sign off of on it.
USA is a country of extreme violence, the death penalty is a disgrace and USA is not a worthy democracy for having it.
“is not a democracy” is all - not even European countries are, when you consider capitalist lobbyism. But Magastan is not even trying to pretend it is anymore.
There are levels of quality of democracies, Scandinavian countries score high, and yes they are democracies, but no democracy is perfect, although a handful of countries are close.
But USA is the most flawed (worst) democracy of the western developed world, with a 2 party system and FPP voting, and extreme powers to a single person which in itself is obviously undemocratic despite the president is somewhat democratically elected.
Power should never be centralized like that, it’s like USA is electing a dictator for 4 years.
You have a very naive view. The moment that - regardless of who gets elected - capital and lobbyism has a larger influence on policies made by those elected, than the program with which they campaigned, it is no longer a democracy. Same of course if elections are already heavily influenced by capital and lobbyism pushing favorable candidates.
In such systems, a change of power by vote is still possible but it would require an overwhelming support for a new political movement to break the status quo (most recent example possibly being Hungary).
That does not mean however that the system is a democracy anymore, neither before nor after such a change. After such a change, however, there’s always a potential to try and return to a democracy.
Due to globalisation, megacorporations are currently able to leverage policies in basically every country, if only by pressure from countries they have currently under their spell. Accordingly, I am not aware of a single actual democracy in today’s world.
Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
Jesus fuck
The death penalty is barbaric. Even in cases like this where the person admits (or does not deny) guilt, the primary reason we should not have a death penalty is to spare the innocent. The only way to be certain that we never execute an innocent person is to never execute anyone at all. People actually guilty of their crimes like Christa Pike can spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Honestly, and this is definitely a hot take, it feels more evil to indefinitely imprison someone than to simply execute them. I hope policing false positives become less of a thing in my lifetime, because both options blow
You can release the wrongfully imprisoned, you cannot un-execute someone. So its more humane to allow them to live, even if its incarcerated. I do agree that prison systems need to be reformed entirely and focus more on rehabilitation than punishment, but Ill take the easy answer to ‘how do you prevent wrongful executions’ first.
America has a President responsible for raping children, murdering their bastard babies, then proceeding to murder hundreds more children and other innocents in his campaign of egotistical terror.
There absolutely is fucking room for a death penalty. Beyond reasonable doubt. Fuck off with the puritan crap.
Also kinda funny to see the Puritans mentioned in this way when the Puritans are well known for witch hunts and public executions of those supposed witches lmao, quite literally wrongful executions exemplified
Abolishing the death penalty is not about punishing the truly guilty, its about sparing the innocent. How many wrongful executions would you accept just so truly guilty people can also be executed?
Anyone who entrusts the state with the power to execute those it already has in captivity and isolated from the public are morons
Bit late now eh?
Time doesn’t bring back the victim
