The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row was still alive after she was administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said in a motion seeking to halt her execution Wednesday night, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.

At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said “executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals” and Christa Pike was “still alive and snoring,” her lawyers said in a federal court filing.

They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice.”

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[–] 72 points 4 days ago (10 children)

Jesus fucking Christ this is a country of sociopaths.

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  • [–] -5 points 3 days ago (8 children)

    I'm against the death penalty because I think it debases our society, but I wouldn't say we're sociopaths. Have you read up on what this woman did? She tortured a girl for hours, bashed her skull in with a rock, then carried a piece of the skull in her pocket, showed it to friends and bragged about the murder.

    If she was a billionaire who opened up a datacenter, you all would be yelling "Botch it again!"

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  • [–] 14 points 3 days ago (7 children)

    She tortured a girl for hours, bashed her skull in with a rock, then carried a piece of the skull in her pocket, showed it to friends and bragged about the murder

    Seems sociopathic.

    I also think this weird "tit for tat" obsession with what amounts to a medieval concept of justice is also sociopathic. That because someone has killed, that some how killing them undoes the initial injustice, well, its sociopathic. There is also ample evidence that it doesn't accomplish any of is purported goals. A society, the response to a killing is to create more killing?

    Seems sociopathic.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    "Killing people is wrong, so we're going to kill you."

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Its a fundamentally reactionary tautology. Laws serves to protect but does not bind. Because I'm the one engaging in the behavior I have a problem with others doing, its fine.

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  • Hell naw, what doesn't work is the "let's give him a free five-stars hotel with everything included". Just basic psychology: if you teach them that what they'll get if they behave bad is always better than what they did, they'll do it again because the costs-benefits calc is always good for them.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (2 children)

    I totally agree with you on everything except for characterizing human desire for revenge and justice as sociopathy. Sure, it's barbaric and beneath a civilized society, but they're not the same.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I don't know what else to call it then, when a society collectively engages in a behavior we would individually characterize as sociopathic. And sure, there are degrees to these things, but the woman isn't roaming the streets continuing to kill. She's already behind bars and has been for decades. If you believe such a thing as justice exists, it was served long, long ago. Whatever this society is engaging in, its not justice, and its closer to what the accused did that it is to whatever could undo what the accused did.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago

    We don't individually characterize murderous grudges as sociopathic. We characterize it as dysfunctional. Hell, in our fiction, we characterize it as somewhat heroic. There's a popular four part movie series about a man who goes on a killing spree after some assholes kill his dog and steal his car. If John Wick was killing innocent hobos just because it made him chuckle, we would characterize that as sociopathic.

    The civilized thing for John Wick to do is to call the cops, report the crime, and let them deal with it. And that's how we as a society should handle such situations too.

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