She is being kept largely in solitary confinement, she said, “away from other people and the human connections that mean so much to me”.
Such isolation was its own form of pain, she said, given that she spent the first 28 years on death row in solitary confinement.
She was 18 at the time of the murder. Most people are hardly the same person that they were that much of their life ago.
She was neglected by alcoholic parents,[12] and her attorneys said she was exposed to alcohol in the womb.[13] She was raped as a toddler and again at ages 11 and 17.[14][15] She attempted suicide at the age of 12 and in 1991 she was sent to a Juvenile Evaluation Center in Swannanoa, North Carolina
28 years of solitary confinement sounds needlessly cruel even for someone convicted of a terrible crime, however, it was arguably justified by her actions in prison. She tried to kill another inmate, for which she was convicted, and later, she tried to escape.
It’s also a normal response for the authorities to try to keep the murderer in prison, even if that means harsher conditions.
I have issues with the prison system in the USA. I think far too many people are imprisoned, and the system fails to rehabilitate people it could and should. That said, I do not want Christa Pike to escape, or be released into society.
She beat a girl to death and kept a chunk of her skull as a trophy, then later tried to strangle another prisoner. She showed herself to be an extreme danger to others and should be confined for the rest of her life, or until there is clear and convincing evidence that she is no longer dangerous.
This is a perfectly fine argument in a world where she hasn’t been exposed to torture. Her constitutional rights were so egregiously violated she deserves her sentence to be commuted.
If you have a problem with that, blame the people who tortured her on behalf of the state, not her.
One of the goals of imprisonment is to punish. I’m willing to agree that she has been punished enough.
Another goal is to protect society from people who have demonstrated an ability and willingness to harm others. I’d be entirely fine with moving Pike to a more comfortable prison or mental institution.
“Deserve” doesn’t enter into the conversation when someone is an obviously violent and dangerous person with no remorse. Repeal the death penalty, sure… But release the prisoner? No.
I never understood why the death penalty needed so much time to be administered. How does this shit not take a week to do? 28 years… torture and utter waste of money.
I mean I kinda agree with them. If you need decades to fully prove someone was guilty of something worth executing them for then you shouldn’t be executing them at all.
Imagine knowing you’re going to be killed by the state but never knowing when or how. I’d rather just take a bullet in the court room
Its very unamerican, but its possible to acknowledge that someone has done something awful, is an awful person, and deserves to die, while simultaneously acknowledging that how we treat the worst among us shapes our humanity and our society.
The penal system should be about minimising harm to the public, and rehabilitating the perp to whatever extent possible.
Its fine to conclude that someone is irredeemable, but they’re still entitled to a lifetime of support to be their best self even if that’s in prison.
American culture is heavily focused on tit for tat transactions. Did bad murder = gets dead. She might deserve death but we are all lessened by giving it to her.
What do you do when mental illness apparently makes you premeditate a murder, carve religious symbols into someone’s flesh, and smash their head like an ape getting at a coconut? You can’t make that right. They grouped up, got all edgey with their satanism, and murdered someone. Your dark past does not give you an excuse to rob others’ futures no matter your mental condition.
No one said it should be an excuse. And a possible solution in her case might have been a forced therapy; so she would also be locked away, just not in prison but a mental institution. If that’s better or worse depends on the institution. But at least the goal would be to right her mind and not punish her if there is no meaningful corrective result.
I’m not of the opinion that all minds can be “corrected”. This case was an especially nasty one, involving multiple people all targeting one person and luring her out away from everyone and mutilated her. The stain of malice cannot be denied here. Seems like everyone has skin in the game for mental illness but no one gives a shit about the hatred and loss of life.
Right, and presumably you’re an expert with at least one relevant PhD or other qualifications and experience who is able to determine what minds can and can not be “corrected”. You must also be an expert of the highest order to be capable of making that determination without speaking to her, or being so much as in the same room as her.
Locked up in a mental institution is also punishment. It’s not like this is a large chillout area with fun games.
No idea how it is in the US, but in Germany this is an even worse punishment, because they don’t get a normal sentence. If they get locked up in jail, there is a time attached depending on the severity of the crime. But mental institution is basically “until deemed fit for society”. So if the staff there wants to fuck you up (or if you are actually a lost cause), they will simply never deem you fit for release and you stay there until eternity, pumped with drugs. And all of this without another judge looking into the case ever again (unless you happen to have very very good support from outside, but even then the judge will typically ask experts — so the doctors — who will just explain why you have to stay locked up).
There are no mental institutions like that in the States. Reagan ended that. That isn’t to say there aren’t any at all, but there are no asylums or anything like that. Most mentally ill become homeless and its fucked up. So an American saying someone needs mental help is basically saying they have no real recourse. I didnt think it was fun and games or a chill out area but I dont think the help she could get in the States would ever have been enough. I dont know what is enough looking at her stated reasonings for the murder. Thats not a problem we know how to simply fix. What I do know is, again, everyone hand waving that someone lost their life to this woman. You glazed over it here, instead going right to talking about mental institutions. Again.
There have been some troubled people that wanted to scare the Christians that were abusing them. And given the number of false convictions around the early and mid 1990s because of ‘satanism,’ anyone that brings it up just looks stupid. Purely, ridiculously stupid.
Which is why they were edgey carving that into her chest? I dont see how you are refuting that they carved a pentagram into her fucking chest here. Thats what I said. Thats what the satanism was. Do you think that was done in jest? Or that they were not being fucken edge lords when they did that? What are you trying to fucken say here? This thread makes no sense now.
There is no evidence it was premeditated, and she didn’t carve religious symbols into anyone. There was a 1 symbol carved into the person, and it wasn’t by her. That person admitted to doing so in court.
Yeah no I read that. I would no longer find her guilty of premeditated murder and as I stated before she did NOT as confirmed by the person who carved said pentagram in her chest stated to police, carve any religious symbols into someone. Not only do I think she served her sentence now I think the state is guilty of torture and you should be legally eligible to be held liable for slander. “Familiarize yourself with the case”. Hopefully other people’s opinions teach you that your opinion isn’t absolute.
Slander ffs. Her and her cohorts went out, lured a woman by herself and tortured and killed her. Everyone seems to be forgetting this but when conservo AI bros get back what they hand out its karma.
Fix the society and the material conditions that allowed this to happen, and work to undo the harm that the failures of society caused that caused this to happen. This crime was completely preventable, and this person, given her personality this late in life after a lifetime of unimaginable and uninterrupted torture since the moment she was born, is obviously someone that would be a good person to have in society.
No actionable plan? There are so many actionable plans that work better than doing nothing. Pick one. Norway. Finland. Iceland. Fucking China. France. Honestly nearly any society that has made it to mid-capitalism or better.
The ‘Perpetrator’ was raped multiple times as a child, physically and verbally abused, and was only sentenced to death because this happened in 1995 instead of 1994.
She was quite literally tortured her entire life, with zero support, zero examples of positive behavior, zero effective alternatives. This was allowed to happen explicitly because of both a lack of healthcare, and a lack of government oversight. If she had regular healthcare, her rapes would have been reported sooner, and she would have had therapy and a new family to guide her to make different choices.
If we did not have a CHRISTIAN society, we wouldn’t have the hysterical whining from far-right christians like you about ‘satanism,’ which would then have allowed the jury and judge to actually look at her like a kid that has been only exposed to abusive behavior, instead of a ‘super evil super-predator satanist.’
She was also repeatedly raped as a child. Sometimes you need to understand what lead a person to their crimes. If you can’t see past the reality of the perpetrator, and only care about obsessing over the most brutal parts of the crime instead of Pike’s lifetime of suffering, then your opinion isn’t related to justice, just revenge.
Revenge was most likely the motive for her trying to kill (only failed due to lack of time) the other death row inmate.
Committing premeditated revenge murder for making rude comments and possibly other actions is not simply “OK” because you had a rough time in the past. Other victims don’t get to just murder everyone they don’t like because they had a bad time. Hell, most rapists were probably raped them selves, not an excuse, considering other victims aren’t out there doing it.
You literally said “most people change”. So yes, you indeed did bring most people into the conversation. Everyone here screams mental illness, but nobody wants to talk about the brutality of carving symbols into flesh and cracking bone with primitive tools.
The person I replied to did, I didnt see it wasnt you, but that means you didnt even read the whole thread just my comment and came in here with a shred of context. Good job.
She was 18 at the time of the murder. Most people are hardly the same person that they were that much of their life ago.
Yikes.
There’s a solid argument that solitary confinement alone is torture. Twenty-eight years of it.
28 years of solitary confinement sounds needlessly cruel even for someone convicted of a terrible crime, however, it was arguably justified by her actions in prison. She tried to kill another inmate, for which she was convicted, and later, she tried to escape.
Trying to escape your captors is normal response.
It’s also a normal response for the authorities to try to keep the murderer in prison, even if that means harsher conditions.
I have issues with the prison system in the USA. I think far too many people are imprisoned, and the system fails to rehabilitate people it could and should. That said, I do not want Christa Pike to escape, or be released into society.
She beat a girl to death and kept a chunk of her skull as a trophy, then later tried to strangle another prisoner. She showed herself to be an extreme danger to others and should be confined for the rest of her life, or until there is clear and convincing evidence that she is no longer dangerous.
This is a perfectly fine argument in a world where she hasn’t been exposed to torture. Her constitutional rights were so egregiously violated she deserves her sentence to be commuted.
If you have a problem with that, blame the people who tortured her on behalf of the state, not her.
One of the goals of imprisonment is to punish. I’m willing to agree that she has been punished enough.
Another goal is to protect society from people who have demonstrated an ability and willingness to harm others. I’d be entirely fine with moving Pike to a more comfortable prison or mental institution.
“Deserve” doesn’t enter into the conversation when someone is an obviously violent and dangerous person with no remorse. Repeal the death penalty, sure… But release the prisoner? No.
I never understood why the death penalty needed so much time to be administered. How does this shit not take a week to do? 28 years… torture and utter waste of money.
Those darn appeals and trying to make sure someone is ACTUALY guilty before murdering them!
I mean I kinda agree with them. If you need decades to fully prove someone was guilty of something worth executing them for then you shouldn’t be executing them at all.
Imagine knowing you’re going to be killed by the state but never knowing when or how. I’d rather just take a bullet in the court room
Most people dont crack other’s skulls in and keep the pieces either
Its very unamerican, but its possible to acknowledge that someone has done something awful, is an awful person, and deserves to die, while simultaneously acknowledging that how we treat the worst among us shapes our humanity and our society.
The penal system should be about minimising harm to the public, and rehabilitating the perp to whatever extent possible.
Its fine to conclude that someone is irredeemable, but they’re still entitled to a lifetime of support to be their best self even if that’s in prison.
American culture is heavily focused on tit for tat transactions. Did bad murder = gets dead. She might deserve death but we are all lessened by giving it to her.
if you punish mental illness, then society itself is sick.
In the US. Can confirm society itself is very sick.
What do you do when mental illness apparently makes you premeditate a murder, carve religious symbols into someone’s flesh, and smash their head like an ape getting at a coconut? You can’t make that right. They grouped up, got all edgey with their satanism, and murdered someone. Your dark past does not give you an excuse to rob others’ futures no matter your mental condition.
No one said it should be an excuse. And a possible solution in her case might have been a forced therapy; so she would also be locked away, just not in prison but a mental institution. If that’s better or worse depends on the institution. But at least the goal would be to right her mind and not punish her if there is no meaningful corrective result.
I’m not of the opinion that all minds can be “corrected”. This case was an especially nasty one, involving multiple people all targeting one person and luring her out away from everyone and mutilated her. The stain of malice cannot be denied here. Seems like everyone has skin in the game for mental illness but no one gives a shit about the hatred and loss of life.
Right, and presumably you’re an expert with at least one relevant PhD or other qualifications and experience who is able to determine what minds can and can not be “corrected”. You must also be an expert of the highest order to be capable of making that determination without speaking to her, or being so much as in the same room as her.
Locked up in a mental institution is also punishment. It’s not like this is a large chillout area with fun games.
No idea how it is in the US, but in Germany this is an even worse punishment, because they don’t get a normal sentence. If they get locked up in jail, there is a time attached depending on the severity of the crime. But mental institution is basically “until deemed fit for society”. So if the staff there wants to fuck you up (or if you are actually a lost cause), they will simply never deem you fit for release and you stay there until eternity, pumped with drugs. And all of this without another judge looking into the case ever again (unless you happen to have very very good support from outside, but even then the judge will typically ask experts — so the doctors — who will just explain why you have to stay locked up).
There are no mental institutions like that in the States. Reagan ended that. That isn’t to say there aren’t any at all, but there are no asylums or anything like that. Most mentally ill become homeless and its fucked up. So an American saying someone needs mental help is basically saying they have no real recourse. I didnt think it was fun and games or a chill out area but I dont think the help she could get in the States would ever have been enough. I dont know what is enough looking at her stated reasonings for the murder. Thats not a problem we know how to simply fix. What I do know is, again, everyone hand waving that someone lost their life to this woman. You glazed over it here, instead going right to talking about mental institutions. Again.
it’s amazing when you can pinpoint Americans.
Factually what happened, but please enlighten me with your elevated world view.
There has never been a Satanic ritual related death in US history.
There have been some troubled people that wanted to scare the Christians that were abusing them. And given the number of false convictions around the early and mid 1990s because of ‘satanism,’ anyone that brings it up just looks stupid. Purely, ridiculously stupid.
Which is why they were edgey carving that into her chest? I dont see how you are refuting that they carved a pentagram into her fucking chest here. Thats what I said. Thats what the satanism was. Do you think that was done in jest? Or that they were not being fucken edge lords when they did that? What are you trying to fucken say here? This thread makes no sense now.
There is no evidence it was premeditated, and she didn’t carve religious symbols into anyone. There was a 1 symbol carved into the person, and it wasn’t by her. That person admitted to doing so in court.
Please familiarize yourself with the case before commenting:
https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/supreme-court/1998/pike.html
Yeah no I read that. I would no longer find her guilty of premeditated murder and as I stated before she did NOT as confirmed by the person who carved said pentagram in her chest stated to police, carve any religious symbols into someone. Not only do I think she served her sentence now I think the state is guilty of torture and you should be legally eligible to be held liable for slander. “Familiarize yourself with the case”. Hopefully other people’s opinions teach you that your opinion isn’t absolute.
Slander ffs. Her and her cohorts went out, lured a woman by herself and tortured and killed her. Everyone seems to be forgetting this but when conservo AI bros get back what they hand out its karma.
No that’s the story you gobbled up like Trump telling you public healthcare is going to burn America. Gobble gobble gobble. Think more, repeat less.
you’re not an expert. just some random idiot.
Okay Mr expert then, what the fuck is up? What do we do?
Fix the society and the material conditions that allowed this to happen, and work to undo the harm that the failures of society caused that caused this to happen. This crime was completely preventable, and this person, given her personality this late in life after a lifetime of unimaginable and uninterrupted torture since the moment she was born, is obviously someone that would be a good person to have in society.
Very broad strokes with no actionable plan, cool. Is wishing praxis?
No actionable plan? There are so many actionable plans that work better than doing nothing. Pick one. Norway. Finland. Iceland. Fucking China. France. Honestly nearly any society that has made it to mid-capitalism or better.
The ‘Perpetrator’ was raped multiple times as a child, physically and verbally abused, and was only sentenced to death because this happened in 1995 instead of 1994.
She was quite literally tortured her entire life, with zero support, zero examples of positive behavior, zero effective alternatives. This was allowed to happen explicitly because of both a lack of healthcare, and a lack of government oversight. If she had regular healthcare, her rapes would have been reported sooner, and she would have had therapy and a new family to guide her to make different choices.
If we did not have a CHRISTIAN society, we wouldn’t have the hysterical whining from far-right christians like you about ‘satanism,’ which would then have allowed the jury and judge to actually look at her like a kid that has been only exposed to abusive behavior, instead of a ‘super evil super-predator satanist.’
If you define any desire to kill as mental illness…
well good luck with your utopia of happy sociopaths pretending to be mentally ill and getting re-released to murder again.
She was also repeatedly raped as a child. Sometimes you need to understand what lead a person to their crimes. If you can’t see past the reality of the perpetrator, and only care about obsessing over the most brutal parts of the crime instead of Pike’s lifetime of suffering, then your opinion isn’t related to justice, just revenge.
Revenge was most likely the motive for her trying to kill (only failed due to lack of time) the other death row inmate.
Committing premeditated revenge murder for making rude comments and possibly other actions is not simply “OK” because you had a rough time in the past. Other victims don’t get to just murder everyone they don’t like because they had a bad time. Hell, most rapists were probably raped them selves, not an excuse, considering other victims aren’t out there doing it.
Again, having a horrid past does not excuse her actions. The murder still took place and the stated reasoning was jealousy.
Nothing excuses her crimes, but being tortured should absolutely excuse her conviction.
I’m sure her victim would feel great about that, or you know, nothing at all because she smashed her head in with a piece of asphalt.
We are not talking about most people though.
You literally said “most people change”. So yes, you indeed did bring most people into the conversation. Everyone here screams mental illness, but nobody wants to talk about the brutality of carving symbols into flesh and cracking bone with primitive tools.
I literally never talked to you before in my life.
What is there to talk about? Its brutal and fucked up. What else is there to say?
“Most people” does not matter when we talk about a person that is clearly not like most people. In their upbringing and in their actions.
The person I replied to did, I didnt see it wasnt you, but that means you didnt even read the whole thread just my comment and came in here with a shred of context. Good job.
Cry me a river.
So insightful. Thank you for the discussion fellow reader. Glad we could come to a null understanding