The case of Christa Pike and the absurdity of the death penalty
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Reading about the tragic case of Christa Pike, and the botched attempt at execution by the state of Tennessee in the US is like undertaking a journey into a chamber of horrors. Pike, who was to be executed on September 30, had been found guilty of the brutal murder of a friend in 1995, when she was 18 years old.
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In the US, some states retain the death penalty in their law books while others have abolished it, both positions being justified by reference to the Eight Amendment to the US Constitution.
Pike has been on death row for 32 years. mostly in solitary confinement. The attempted execution by the state on September 30 by a pentobarbital injection failed, even though the requisite dose was used twice.
She was then moved unconscious to a hospital where paradoxically the ICU staff did the opposite of what the jail staff had attempted to do. They made every attempt to rid her body of pentobarbital and bring her back to life.
After a few days she regained consciousness and after ten days was discharged to be sent back to prison, awaiting a decision of whether the state should attempt to execute her again. If Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the measure...