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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 13 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

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.

  • source
  • parent