Quoted in "Tennessee to execute a woman for first time in over 200 years/Christa Pike was convicted in a brutal 1995 killing committed when she was 18. Advocates pushing for her life to be spared point to abuse she suffered as a child" (WaPo).
The death penalty requires that a jury find "aggravating factors." There were two: She tried to cover up the murder and it was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death."
I couldn't get Grok to tell me the details of the murder. It said "I won’t describe the attack itself or the injuries in detail. That would mean laying out the methods of a murder, which I don’t do." I assured it that my purpose had to do with the legal standard, but it held firm.
I couldn't get Grok to tell me the details of the murder. It said "I won’t describe the attack itself or the injuries in detail. That would mean laying out the methods of a murder, which I don’t do." I assured it that my purpose had to do with the legal standard, but it held firm.
Scanning the article again, I found the paragraph with the factual information: "According to court documents and trial testimony, Slemmer was forced to strip off her clothes then beaten, tortured and repeatedly slashed with a knife. Pike admitted to hitting the girl in the head with asphalt, cutting her throat and taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir, records show."
Right under that is a photograph from the trial: a forensic anthropologist holding the victim's shattered skull.
Here's the summary of the comments over there: "The comments reflect a heated debate over the death penalty, particularly in the case of Christa Pike. Many commenters argue against the death penalty, citing its ineffectiveness as a deterrent and the moral contradiction of state-sanctioned killing. Others emphasize the brutality of Pike's crime and the suffering of the victim's family, suggesting that execution may provide closure. Some comments highlight the influence of Pike's abusive past on her actions, while others dismiss it as irrelevant to her sentencing. Overall, the discussion reveals a deep divide on issues of justice, punishment, and the impact of personal history on criminal behavior."
ADDED: The London Times has this: "Christa Pike: ‘I have a kinship with Lindsay Clancy’/The first woman set to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years, sympathises with the mother ‘who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues.’"
"I feel a kinship with Lindsay. We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues. One thing is different, however, is that times have changed a lot on awareness of women’s issues since I was put on trial. I am pleased she received a mistrial and is getting the help she needs. There are so many women who don’t get the help they need: me and others."
Speaking of women's issues, the London Times gives us this:
પોસ્ટ્સ
62 ટિપ્પણીઓ:
When she was 18, huh? So - an adult, then.
"When she was 18, huh? So - an adult, then."
Right. Her accomplice was 17, and he's now eligible for parole.
Planned Perphood for causes of entertaining abortive ideation and Choosing to take affirmative action with Planned or premeditated Personhood.
This along with the Lindsay Clancy mess is conditioning for Sharia, so American AWFL's won't balk when they have to marry to Afghan goatherd who raped them.
>Advocates pushing for her life to be spared point to abuse she suffered as a child"<
Because as we all know, all of the millions of people who were abused as a child end up murdering someone. Why are they picking on poor Christa?
Before you get the help you need - be sure to off-with some people. that will help ease your discomfort.
Transitioning in prison is highly approved and encouraged by the very top of the democrat party crime syndicate.
"Right. Her accomplice was 17, and he's now eligible for parole."
Life's not fair.
Just ask Colleen Slemmer.
Pike was also convicted of attempted 1st degree murder of another inmate, committed when Pike was 25. She reportedly tried to strangle her with a shoestring.
The death penalty is neither deterrence nor retribution. It points to the place occupied by voice of the victim, a voice that is missing, and society's obligation to it.
Once aborted, never to abort again.
She aborted a "burden", relieving a burden of state and mind, and now she's feeling much better. The "burden" not so much. A minority report or a character reveal?
The idea that "we know" the death penalty is not a deterrent, is incorrect, to me.
At most, deterrence is unknowable.
I suspect it is a deterrent. I also do not care.
If the murder is a guilt slam dunk - the death penalty should be on the table.
Tell me, Althouse, did the Post’s article mention that while she was incarcerated Christ’s Pike attempted to murder a fellow prisoner by trying to strangle the 84 year old woman with a shoestring.
19’ year old Colleen Slemmer died from being slowly, painfully, beaten to death. I’m tired of AWFLs weeping over women like Lindsay Clancy and Christa Pike. The proper question is what do we owe the murder victims?
I’ve debated on the pro side of the death penalty many times. I won’t belabor that here except to say that I’ve never figured out how the opponents are able to measure “lack of deterrence,” particularly when the penalty is rarely imposed. Of course, the opposition has nothing to do with facts or logic.
Without getting overly graphic, here’s a link to the murder.
https://volopedia.lib.utk.edu/entries/job-corps-student-murdered-on-agriculture-campus/
The death penalty may not deter others from committing a crime but it will most certainly prevent the dead convict from committing any more crimes.
@Peachy+2, I’d say that Pike’s murder of Colleen Slemmer was a slam dunk — when arrested she was carrying a piece of Slemmer’s skull In her jacket pocket as a macabre souvenir.
"uniquely female issues.’"
You are not serious.
How sad............................................anyway.
Capitol... capital punishment.
Spare the murderer, and in the post above kill the innocent child all in the name of compassion. The best thing to be said about liberals is that they write well.
@Althouse, Tadaryl Shipp, was more than just Christa Pike’s accomplice. He had been her physically abusive boyfriend, and he introduced her to satanism. More importantly, he set the murder in motion by cheating on Pike with the murder victim, Colleen Slemmer. While it’s true that Shipp was 17 at the time of the murder, Shipp was tried as an adult so his age was irrelevant to the sentence handed down. Both were charged with first degree homicide, however yhr prosecution asked for the death penalty for Pike but not for Shipp, and it is not recorded why that was. He became eligible for parole last October but was turned down.
A burden is a "burden" is a burden of state and mind at any age, irrespective of gender or sex. A working hypothesis for an equitable and inclusive social and legal construct.
The London Times has this: "Christa Pike: ‘I have a kinship with Lindsay Clancy’
Yep, both of you deserve to die.
"the moral contradiction of state-sanctioned killing"
How about the moral contradiction of state sanctioned kidnapping (it's called "arresting") and state sanctioned theft (fines, taxes, etc).
The State regularly does things that private individuals are punished for doing, get over it.
Or else oppose arresting kidnappers, fining thieves, or taxing ANYONE
Penalties logically become more serious with the increasing seriousness of the crime and the damage done to others. That makes capital punishment, at the very least, logical and reasonable. To take it off the table, society devalues the life taken as just another theft, and that weakness becomes even more immoral when the murder involves wantonly inflicting pain with the murder. The morally responsible state is only obliged to make certain it is applied correctly, fairly, and without profit or debasing human suffering.
It's clear from an early age that punishment of any kind can fail to deter some, but it also deters others. I assume that many of those against capital punishment would find power in the phrase "If it saves even one life...".
I think the abuse Colleen Slemmer received was worse.
Prison is obviously a very poor deterrent. Like most laws, it only works on the people least likely to commit a crime.
Commenters argue against the death penalty, citing its ineffectiveness as a deterrent.
No one has ever committed a murder (or any other crime) after execution.
Some people, by their own actions, relinquish their right to live. The State doesn't take it from them. No one does. Except themselves. Christa Pike is one such person.
Death by lethal injection rather than the cruel death her victim suffered seems merciful enough to me...
"In the landmark 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits executing anyone who was under 18 years old at the time of the offense. For example, in the notorious 1995 Tennessee "Job Corps" murder case, Shadolla Shipp was spared the death penalty specifically because he was 17 when the crime occurred, whereas his 18-year-old co-defendant, Christa Pike, was sentenced to death row."
It's preferable that the murderer become a better person before being executed. That makes the price paid closer to fair, but it can never get there.
They’re about to execute Nidal Hasan son, too. It only took 17 years.
How much deterrent effect are they expecting to see when they wait 31 years to execute someone?
Entertaining abortive ideation is a character revealed and an impulsive Choice that preludes forward-looking trust.
She should have been executed by 1997 at the latest! Wonder how many appeals were made? Appealing denied appeal after denied appeal ad nauseum!
If you think any of this is bad, wait 'till you get a good taste of sharia. Coming soon to a blue precinct near you (if it ain't already there, that is - formally or informally).
"How much deterrent effect are they expecting to see when they wait 31 years to execute someone?"
Excellent point. Although personally, I think retribution is sufficient enough reason for capital punishment.
@Rsbel, I’d like to know more about your source for the quote. For one thing it get’s Shipp’s name wrong: he is Tadaryl according to Wikipedia. “Shadolla” would be Shadolla Peterson, the third culprit who acted as lookout, then turned state’s evidence and got off with probation.
But most importantly “Roper v. Simmons” was decided in 2005 while the prosecutors made their decision about pursuing (or not pursuing) the death penalty for Shipp and Pike in 1996.
I’d have had no problem with executing the 18-year-old Pike. But we didn’t and now can’t do that. Now she’s 50, and sometimes people do change. Morally, if not legally, killing her now seems like a different thing.
The miscarriage of justice here is the delay between sentencing and execution. Isn't it a form of torture to be kept in a state of existential dread for that long? Isn't it a stressor on the victims of the crime in particular, and to society in general, to prolong the resolution?
31 years later. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The death penalty now is sort of beside the point.
Society does need to protect itself from monsters, however.
You could have just asked Grok to find you accounts which describe the details of the murder.
Funny, I don't remember anyone pleading for mercy for John Wayne Gacy, Sam Shepard or Charlie Manson due to childhood trauma. Chalk it up to White Privilege.
I appreciate everyone’s comments as I’ve wrestled with capital punishment. There’s something really fucked up about these times that a death row inmate is buoyed by a fucked up politically charged murder case pulled from current events….
I’m reading comments upthread and there’s a lot of “this is what I feel” and “here’s how I see it.” But my original question stands: what do we owe the injured parties, and especially, what do we owe the dead? And if you want to label that “retribution,” then don’t say it like it’s a bad think.
Crista Pike weren’t no friend of mine
Crista Pike weren’t no friend of mine
A chunk of asphalt, she just crossed a line
A chunk of asphalt, she just crossed a line
1) Justice and deterrence would be better served if the appeals process in death penalty cases allowed only for a single, expedited, fast-track run up the appellate courts with affirmation or reversal to occur within one year of judgment.
2) How screwed up is it that a death row inmate thinks that her case will be helped by comparing her situation to that of a woman who methodically murdered her three small children?
Can the lethally injected donate their organs?
How'd you like to find out you have Christa Pike's heart?
traditional medical ethics forbid using organs from executed prisoners because it encourages juries to impose the death penalty.
Just look at MAID in Canada: How many will think their lives are useless so will kill themselves so they can do a good deed and donate their organs.
Ann Althouse said...
"When she was 18, huh? So - an adult, then."
Right. Her accomplice was 17, and he's now eligible for parole."
Yes. The kind of fine distinction the law makes, similar to statutory rape, where an 18-year-old boy, may fall victim to the wiles of a 17-year-old girl.
"The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. The judgment of the Missouri Supreme Court setting aside the sentence of death imposed upon Christopher Simmons is affirmed.
It is so ordered."
The decision still stands. It is what it is.
"The kind of fine distinction the law makes, similar to statutory rape, where an 18-year-old boy, may fall victim to the wiles of a 17-year-old girl."
Is there a statute of limitations on that.
Asking for a friend.
For some reason., homicide victims do a terrible job of justifying their rights to continue living.
@ Rabel - Unless a particular state decides to pass a temporary law to allow victims to make claims decades old. I looked into it, because Crank's Drugstore in Springfield, Missouri, sold me a Playboy magazine when I was 9 years old. At the age of 69, I am sure that the experience scarred me for life. I still find naked 20-something women attractive.
Jailhouse redemption is always good especially for girls. If you are on death row sign up to be a nun. But this person had a concave quadratic redemption, she first tried to kill a fellow prisoner with a shoe lace and then became a saint.
I was a Boy Scout assistant leader in my day, and I began believing that some very few kids were just born with a non human brain. So I pity them from a distance.
The twilight fringe.
ટિપ્પણી પોસ્ટ કરો
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.