The State of Tennessee has no alternative but to end the execution of their death row inmates. The idea behind a full life sentence without parole is to protect society from these criminals.
The reason there are botched attempts at executions is because there are no medical personnel anywhere that will be a part of this barbaric form of justice. Marsha Blackburn is basically stating she has the guts to attempt another execution by signing a piece of paper as if that means there is competency in the execution. A signed paper only proves the State of Tennessee has no valid method of execution. A signed paper by a governor is not going to mean the prisoner will be deceased humanly or at all.
The death penalty in the USA is more a judgement of a society and it's inability to limit cruelty in the obvious presence of failure.
Ms. Pike was 50 years old and she may have lived another 20 or 30 years. What difference does it make if a prisoner is incarcerated if they will never be back in society? As a nation we have a right to dignity. A life behind bars is not as much a deterrent as the death penalty? I believe it is. Crimes of passion as is the case with Christa Pike occurs in the face of consequences.
I am not a victim's family and perhaps they can answer the question about the cruelty of the death penalty in Tennessee, but, the issue is justice and finding methods that work to eliminate and not deter crime. These cases are a challenge to society to find solutions for such crimes rather than seeking a form of justice that leaves society scarred with the cruelty that accompanies it.
By Emily Cochrane
Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator (click here) in a Nashville hospital a day after surviving a botched execution attempt, her lawyers said in a court filing, raising questions about whether the state could legally try to execute her again.
As of Thursday evening, Ms. Pike, 50, was critically ill, they wrote in the Friday filing in Davidson County Chancery Court, and both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital.
Her condition sets the stage for an unprecedented ethical and legal quagmire: A future attempt to execute Ms. Pike could hinge on whether she is determined to be capable of what the Supreme Court has described as a “rational understanding” of the reason she is to be put to death.
And although Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions for now, the front-runner to be elected governor next month, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, said that she would try again to execute Ms. Pike, who was convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate....
Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator (click here) in a Nashville hospital a day after surviving a botched execution attempt, her lawyers said in a court filing, raising questions about whether the state could legally try to execute her again.
As of Thursday evening, Ms. Pike, 50, was critically ill, they wrote in the Friday filing in Davidson County Chancery Court, and both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital.
Her condition sets the stage for an unprecedented ethical and legal quagmire: A future attempt to execute Ms. Pike could hinge on whether she is determined to be capable of what the Supreme Court has described as a “rational understanding” of the reason she is to be put to death.
And although Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions for now, the front-runner to be elected governor next month, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, said that she would try again to execute Ms. Pike, who was convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate....
