Let us not loose sight of this woman in a supposedly civilised nation
November 2026
Readers will recall that Christi Pike was intended to be executed a few weeks ago but after an hour spent trying to find a vein and two attempts, the curtains were pulled across and Christi was found to be still alive. She was rushed to hospital where she came back to life. She has now been returned to prison and is in solitary confinement and is in great pain. Medical experts have expressed shock at the incompetence of the process.
She was condemned to death for the violent murder in 1995 of Colleen Anne Slemmer. Christi has been in prison ever since that is over 30 years. The case has aroused great passions in the US and failings in the initial trial to tell the court of the profound abuse and trauma she experienced as a child has been criticised not least by Amnesty USA.
Many have urged the Tennessee governor, Bill Lee to commute her sentence which he has not so far done.
The death penalty aroused great passions in the US although support for it has declined according to various polls. It survives because several prominent politicians use it to claim that they are ‘tough on crime’. It has become a kind of metaphor enabling politicians to parade their supposed toughness by supporting this sentence. That it has little to do with the vast majority of crimes and criminality seems not to be noticed. Neither the fact that it is not a deterrent nor that hundreds have been exonerated demonstrating an unsatisfactory legal system seems to enter the narrative.
The US, alone in the Americas in using the penalty, joins regimes such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia in continuing in using it.
Sources: The Tennessean, CBS, Daily Mail
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