Pike survived a lethal injection execution on Wednesday. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Christa Pike, the woman who survived an execution attempt in Tennessee earlier this week, is on a ventilator as she receives care in the hospital, her lawyers said in a new statement Friday.
“Christa remains critically ill and is receiving medical care for the devastating effects of Wednesday night’s events,” the lawyers’ statement said. “She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator.”
The statement said she is being treated for “the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”
It’s so wild to see the discussions around this - mostly about trying to revert to more “humane” ways of killing someone, when the very obvious thing here is to stop killing people?
And then there are the bloodthirsty types that seem to be everywhere talking about “how dare you talk about this, how much did you even see liberals showing any empathy for her victim but now they are all bleeding-hearts about a killer? Liberals just love criminals and death!” Talk about a strawman, JFC?
‘Significant injuries to both arms’ makes it clear they didn’t have a fuckin clue how to find a vein. They were jabbing away, and it sounds like they injected into tissue. A junkie would have done a better job. That statement is very rarely true, and it’s a sad indictment of their competence.
So she is sentenced to death, and their method fails so she now is on a ventilator. Presumably she is on the ventilator because she can’t breathe on her own and will die without it. If they take her off the vent and she dies would that not then make the execution a success?
She is sentenced to death AND spends 30 years on death row, THEN they fuck it up twice.
I don’t get it. Like what’s the holdup if they already decided?
Oh and also just letting her die? Well that would be inhumane.
The holdup is that usually the lawyers of death row inmates try to stall as much as possible. I guess the general strategy behind that is that maybe you can stall long enough for the U.S. society to understand that a death sentence is barbarism. So, the hope, that you can keep your client alive long enough for their sentence to be changed into lifelong.
I can’t believe they don’t just use barbituates like some countries with physician assisted suicide do. They just fall asleep, essentially. Not that I’m arguing in favor of the death penalty in any way.
Or heroin. In the past I’ve overdosed on heroin a couple of times and it is quick and painless. And it’s not as though it’s difficult to source.
That said, I’m also against the death penalty until we can come up with a system that correctly identifies the guilty 100% of the time. I doubt that’ll ever be possible.
Heroin doesn’t sound bad sedated. Go out in a big high if you even feel it.
Pentobarbitol is a barbituate. That’s whatthwy used.
Ah. Shit.
For the record I think the death penalty should be abolished. However, I’ve always thought guillotine would be the way to go. Very quick, and without a head there is no chance they aren’t dead. I guess that’s just too yucky.
Maybe if they were sedated first. I can’t imagine having my head shoved in a place to cut it off and hearing the thing start sliding down.
The State: murder is illegal.
Also the State: murder is legal when we do it.
Rules for thee, not for me
There is no such thing as a “humane execution”. “Humane” to whom, anyway?
Maybe to the public crowd that does not get to see the agony because the person’s muscles cannot move anymore and we do not hear anything.
Oh, how I hate the idea the government could kill a person and call it “justice”.
And what about the pro life crusaders, where are they in this debate? Fucking hypocrites.
Well, they say there are ways to kill any other animal in a humane way, so why don’t we just apply those to do the humane execution. Seems valid to me.
It sucks even more because she was begging to be shot instead of an injection because of her child abuse.
I don’t know why life in prison wasn’t enough? She was removed from society and getting the psychological help she needed regularly.
The US is fucking barbaric.
All this debate about the best way to kill a fellow human being. I know that she was a piece of shit, but there is something twisted about the practice of state authorised execution. I don’t trust the state to have moral clarity on setting parking fines.
I am sincerely pleased that I am not a citizen of the United States, and I would imagine that Americans would find that circumstance mutually pleasing.
They also have the largest percentage of population imprisoned on Earth. Savage society.
Slave labor never stopped here. They just found new ways to do it.
Nah, one part I disagree with: I’m an American, and I very much wish there were more people like you here.
Thanks Mate. I’m forever guilty of generalisation. Soz.
What exactly is the deterrent, anyway?
There were pickpockets working the crowd at public executions in London when theft was a capital offence.
If we’re going to have executions, then they should be humane, efficient, quick, and painless. The best way to accomplish that is with Nitrogen gas. Some states are already doing that, but they are doing it wrong, administering it through a covering over the mouth and nose.
Remember how the guy died at the end of One Battle After Another? He just relaxed in a comfortable chair in a glass box, and a gas, almost certainly intended to be nitrogen, filled the room, until he dozed off, and died.
That’s how every execution should be. And since almost 80% of the atmosphere is nitrogen, it can be easily vented off without danger, unlike the old cyanide executions from the old days.
Nah I disagree, the state shouldn’t get to disguise the violence it inflicts on people. Executions should not happen full stop, but if they do I condemn any measure whatsoever that spares the executioners from the trauma of what they are doing.
If I were to be executed I’d much rather be hanged, beheaded, or shot and without a hood in any case - hangmen and other supporting officials have no business making it easier for themselves to sleep at night.
My sentiment exactly. I would even add that the executioner should be injured part, like the closest person to the victim and if they don’t wanna do it them the death penalty is commuted. Or if there is no one maybe the person who has more of the part they play.
Maybe I am optimistic but I think this would increase empathy and maybe people would decide to get rid of the death penalty for once and for all.
Humane execution haha
Yeah, and if anyone needs to go into the room to check on them or declare the dearh, just give them an oxygen mask and they’ll be fine. And if somehow a toddler gets teleported into the room without a mask, just swing the door open and closed a few times and that probably mixes in enough oxygen to be fine until the rest mixes in from the door just being open.
I’m pretty sure this whole time the intent has been to maximize suffering while making it look like they are trying to minimize it.
You could easily monitor their vitals remotely, this is the 21st century, after all. And again, this is the 21st century, so toddlers being teleported into the execution chamber is a highly unlikely scenario.
I’m pretty sure this whole time the intent has been to maximize suffering while making it look like they are trying to minimize it.
Well, when one considers that the lethal injection drugs are reported to be painful, inconsistent in efficacy, and difficult to obtain, while at the same time fentanyl is ending the lives of long term heroin addicts with high tolerance…I mean, c’mon, if they’re hell bent on injecting stuff why aren’t they hooking them up to a fatal fent dose?
The only reason I can see them continuing to do it the ‘old way’ is the suffering.
Yeah, or the nitrogen execution they did was one of the few ways a nitrogen death could be physically uncomfortable because it allowed CO2 to build up. All they had to do was vent the mask and have it attached to a tank with a higher pressure than the room if they didn’t want to do the “replace all the room’s oxygen” method. Just like any fucking breathing mask that was produced before it happened. They had to go out of their way to turn that execution into a torture and they did.
Absolutely. There are so many ways available to make execution ‘easy’ for the condemned, but the states enacting it seem to look for the most torturous ways they can get away with.
I am generally against the death penalty for exactly these reasons.
So much for the “christian values” they say to follow. The US is rotten and violence is worshipped so much in the country that this kind of thing is not cause to revolt because she “deserves it”.
You’re not so different from the zionazi state. You’re just more westerner. Christians… shitty hypocrites is what you are. It’s really sad that there is no god nor heaven, you’d all go to hell if that were the case.
And before anyone comes saying bs, no. I’m not defending what this woman did. She deserves prison for what she did. But the way the US “justice” system works is nothing about justice, is plain revenge and slavery. And how interesting is to see them justify the system with their “christian” values…
The world deserves a yellowstone eruption.
“Christians” have been doing crimes against humanity for two thousand years
Aaaah, maybe not while the Romans still fed them to the lions.
Who is paying for all this care? The attempted execution seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. I’m not in favor of execution, but if you’re gonna do it, do it quickly and efficiently, as humanely as possible. We euthanize small animals all the time. Is this what they go through?
You assume that killing animals goes well all the time… its doesn’t and we mostly dont kill them before we butcher them.
Usually they are just stunned and the bled to death.
Which if course works but… not all the time.
Not nearly. I had to put down my dog recently, unfortunately and can share how it went.
I’ll start by saying it was time. She was over 15 years old, blind, and disabled. But rest assured that she had a very rich life full of friends and travel. We did everything we could to give her the best life we could afford.
The vet warned my partner and I about how quickly it takes effect. The first thing they did was put in an IV catheter, which was probably the most discomfort she faced. But she was getting spoiled during it. After that it was two shots. The first one made her let out a deep yawn and knocked her out asleep. The second one ensured she never woke up from it, effectively an overdose. She knew the vet well, so from her perspective it was some discomfort followed by a nap.
I miss her every day 💔
The state is.
Not in the slightest.
The protocols for euthanizing small animals are written by doctors and veterinarians and scientists. None of those people want anything to do with executions, so the protocols for executions are generally written by people with little medical training, and the people conducting the execution are in a similar boat.
The result is that execution protocols are far from optimal. Take for example the typical three drug cocktail- first drug knocks you out, second drug paralyzes you, third drug stops the heart. Only problem is the third drug is extremely painful so if the dosage of the first drug is too low you can be conscious for it but unable to move leading to one of the most torturous painful deaths you can imagine, which nobody on the outside has any idea is going on because you are unable to move.
A much better execution protocol would be something like fentanyl or a single massive overdose of barbiturates. Either one you would just pass out and die quickly. Another option is nitrogen, the air we breathe is 80% nitrogen so the body doesn’t react to it. Simply give somebody 100% nitrogen 0% oxygen, the brain is starved of oxygen, you get painless euphoric unconsciousness in under a minute and death in under 10 minutes. It’s also cheap as hell because it’s all around us.
Thing is- speaking for myself, as a pilot and scuba diver I understand exactly how nitrogen hypoxia works and I could write a 100% bulletproof execution protocol that could be administered by a trained monkey and would lead to a rapid painless death every time. I won’t do it. You could pay me a million dollars and I wouldn’t do it. I don’t have faith in our criminal justice system prudence to execute people. There are too many situations where innocent people have been convicted and executed and the system did not properly consider the evidence in their favor. As such I don’t think it’s ethical for me to help a system kill people when I don’t have faith that they are always going to kill the right people and not the wrong ones.
And the thing is, and not the only one. There’s an awful lot of doctors and medical technicians in this country, and prison systems still have trouble finding ones to deal with executions. There’s tons of pharmaceutical suppliers in the world and prison systems have trouble finding ones that will supply execution drugs at any price. The vast majority of people simply do not want to be part of capital punishment.
And as for who pays, it’s the taxpayer. Given the actual execution and all of the legal hurdles involved, it is a good bit cheaper to just incarcerate somebody for life. Which makes you wonder why some people are so dead set on having a death penalty when for less money we can just lock them up and throw away the key.
The issue with hypoxic mixis is that not all people react to it equally, it takes some time to actually do it thing in the range if minutes and you do remain conscious quite long.
So there is quite a big time frame were the prisoner knows whats happening and that time is pure panic.
Now if you simply would flood is cell with nitrogen im his sleep…thay would be stressless but anything else just leaves enough time for people to panic
They tried the nitrogen hypoxia
Smith was strapped to a gurney wearing a full-face mask. His last words were said to be, “Tonight, Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. Thank you for supporting me. Love all of you.”[2] The nitrogen gas was administered beginning at 7:57 p.m.[27] Some witnesses commented that Smith looked as if he was conscious for several minutes[28][27] and “thrashed violently on the gurney”,[2] breathing heavily for several minutes before his breathing was no longer visible.[28] Smith appeared to lose consciousness at 8:02 p.m.[27] It appeared death occurred when movement of Smith ceased at 8:08 p.m.[27] The curtain to the witness room closed at 8:15 p.m.[29] He was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.[30]
I saw that. Somebody seriously fucked something up there. My guess is whatever mask setup they use wasn’t giving him 100% nitrogen, or possibly he was holding his breath and fighting it.
I’ve also considered the possibility that he just didn’t want to validate nitrogen as a form of execution, so he made a conscious decision to make it look as painful as possible. If so I say fucking good for him. One of the reasons I would never help write night an execution protocol, even though I could do it, is I don’t want to further legitimize capital punishment in the US. And if there is an easy instant painless bloodless way to execute someone, that is one of the arguments against capital punishment that goes away.
I would never
If you ever think you are going to question the decision to not write those protocols, remember pro-execution people will probably send you death threats, over trying to be humane.
If they are going to argue that I or those like me should be compelled to participate in executions we have no interest in, then I would point out that all of their arguments for personal freedoms and liberties are not being upheld.
I think a great many of the people you describe are just overall hypocritical and don’t even realize it. IE, on one hand they demand the ten commandments be put up in schools, then on the other hand they push the death penalty which is very unlike the religion they claim to follow.
What?? No!
I’m saying that people that want the death penalty are the, “cruelty is the point” people and they would be mad if someone seriously made the process more compassionate
I gotcha.
The vast majority of those people seem to walk a tightrope between ‘bad people should suffer as an example’ and ‘if you killed someone you don’t deserve a painless death you deserve to suffer’ and ‘we support humane execution’. You can usually tell because they seem more interested in humane execution to shut down complaints than to be humane.
A much better protocol is single massive overdose of barbiturates??? Like 5grams of pentobarbital perhaps?
It’s great how you criticize a bunch of yahoos who wrote the protocol, then propose the same thing they did in this exact case.
Just ban the fucking death penalty.
Would you hypothetically share that bulletproof plan of yours to those seeking humane euthanasia?
Absolutely, although others already have.
You understand that they’ll take that too right?
also why wait 30 years? its not the same person anymore
Because of politics, legal arguments and a super-slow judicial system. Sometimes it can be accelerated. Timothy McVeigh was executed pretty quickly.
Most pharmaceutical companies won’t sell the state the drugs used to properly kill someone. Rather than stop executing people, the state tries to make do with whatever they can get their hands on.
Why not just buy fentanyl in bulk from China and give them a hot shot?
People keep suggesting that. I hear fentanyl overdoses are awful to experience.
Why not just buy fentanyl in bulk from
ChinaMexico and Canada and give them a hot shot?deleted by creator
I believe there are all sorts of restrictions on what sources they are allowed to buy from. This is also supposed to be “punishment” so they don’t want the prisoner to feel good before they die.
I had fentanyl administered by a professional once and I didn’t feel good, I just lost consciousness within some three seconds. Probably the matter of right dose.
On the other hand, death penalty supporters probably wouldn’t want to take chances with the three seconds window.
The most humane way is probably the most gruesome way, which is beheading. Every other “humane” execution contains suffering for a bit, while beheading immediately overwhelm your brain with signals and you’re very unlikely to feel pain. The other way is by hanging, which will likely snap your neck once you drop down and overwhelm your brain with signals, but the risk is if the rope doesn’t adjusted to the right height you’re gonna hurt your neck while suffocating.
So get your guillotine now.
Yeah, a cruel (or just incompetent) hangman would shorten the drop so that you die from slow strangulation instead of a quick snap. And given the cruelty is the point, I wouldn’t trust Tennessee to do it properly.
Guillotines are effective, but if not kept properly maintained, they can fail to completely sever the head. And there is some evidence that death is not instant.
Personally, if I was to choose my manner of execution, it would be firing squad. But the most effective would be sedative overdose or nitrogen asphyxiation, again only if done properly.
Also the destruction of the brain like with what is used to kill livestock would also work. Brain can’t feel pain if it’s converted into a liquid.
so what’s the plan? nurse her back to health (long painful recovery) and then execute her after another 10 to 15 years?
Its the American dream™
They’re also freely giving her better medical attention and coverage than an abhorrent percentage of the rest of the population. They’re giving her care that an insurance company would do their damndest to deny, and as soon as she’s conscious, they’ll try to kill her again.
The state is probably pissy though because now they have to do paperwork to get another death warrant signed.
What an unnecessary fiasco.
I’m too lazy to read. Was there a “what now” listed?
They’re going to kill this woman. How and when is up in the air, but the ultimate result will be that. There is no ending where this woman is not killed by the state.
I’m sure noone knows. The fact that they put a person they just tried to kill twice on life support tells you everything there is to know about the twisted ethics of this.
mission accomplished? :(
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