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[–] 116 points 2 days ago (79 children)

This whole shit is just wild. The state shouldn't be murdering people. This chick brought home a chunk from the skull of the girl she killed. And now the state is fucking up so hard you can't help but feel bad for her because we as empathetic people dont like suffering. Fucken rollercoaster.

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  • [–] 94 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (63 children)

    She is being kept largely in solitary confinement, she said, “away from other people and the human connections that mean so much to me”.

    Such isolation was its own form of pain, she said, given that she spent the first 28 years on death row in solitary confinement.

    She was 18 at the time of the murder. Most people are hardly the same person that they were that much of their life ago.

    She was neglected by alcoholic parents,[12] and her attorneys said she was exposed to alcohol in the womb.[13] She was raped as a toddler and again at ages 11 and 17.[14][15] She attempted suicide at the age of 12 and in 1991 she was sent to a Juvenile Evaluation Center in Swannanoa, North Carolina

    Yikes.

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  • [–] 51 points 1 day ago (7 children)

    There's a solid argument that solitary confinement alone is torture. Twenty-eight years of it.

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  • [–] 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

    There is a man in Japan who was on Japanese death row for like 60 years. If you’re not aware, on Japanese death row, you’re in near complete isolation. This guy was in solitary for around six decades. AND HE WAS INNOCENT

    Edit: also, Japanese death row doesn’t work the same as American and others’ death rows. They don’t tell Japanese death row inmates when they’ll be executed until less than an hour before they are to be executed. So this man spent 60 YEARS not knowing if the day he woke up is the day he died.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    28 years of solitary confinement sounds needlessly cruel even for someone convicted of a terrible crime, however, it was arguably justified by her actions in prison. She tried to kill another inmate, for which she was convicted, and later, she tried to escape.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    Trying to escape your captors is normal response.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    It's also a normal response for the authorities to try to keep the murderer in prison, even if that means harsher conditions.

    I have issues with the prison system in the USA. I think far too many people are imprisoned, and the system fails to rehabilitate people it could and should. That said, I do not want Christa Pike to escape, or be released into society.

    She beat a girl to death and kept a chunk of her skull as a trophy, then later tried to strangle another prisoner. She showed herself to be an extreme danger to others and should be confined for the rest of her life, or until there is clear and convincing evidence that she is no longer dangerous.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago* (2 children)

    I never understood why the death penalty needed so much time to be administered. How does this shit not take a week to do? 28 years... torture and utter waste of money.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Those darn appeals and trying to make sure someone is ACTUALY guilty before murdering them!

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  • I mean I kinda agree with them. If you need decades to fully prove someone was guilty of something worth executing them for then you shouldn't be executing them at all.

    Imagine knowing you're going to be killed by the state but never knowing when or how. I'd rather just take a bullet in the court room

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (50 children)

    Most people dont crack other's skulls in and keep the pieces either

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  • [–] 10 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Its very unamerican, but its possible to acknowledge that someone has done something awful, is an awful person, and deserves to die, while simultaneously acknowledging that how we treat the worst among us shapes our humanity and our society.

    The penal system should be about minimising harm to the public, and rehabilitating the perp to whatever extent possible.

    Its fine to conclude that someone is irredeemable, but they're still entitled to a lifetime of support to be their best self even if that's in prison.

    American culture is heavily focused on tit for tat transactions. Did bad murder = gets dead. She might deserve death but we are all lessened by giving it to her.

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  • [–] 32 points 1 day ago (30 children)

    if you punish mental illness, then society itself is sick.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (27 children)

    What do you do when mental illness apparently makes you premeditate a murder, carve religious symbols into someone's flesh, and smash their head like an ape getting at a coconut? You can't make that right. They grouped up, got all edgey with their satanism, and murdered someone. Your dark past does not give you an excuse to rob others' futures no matter your mental condition.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    No one said it should be an excuse. And a possible solution in her case might have been a forced therapy; so she would also be locked away, just not in prison but a mental institution. If that’s better or worse depends on the institution. But at least the goal would be to right her mind and not punish her if there is no meaningful corrective result.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    I'm not of the opinion that all minds can be "corrected". This case was an especially nasty one, involving multiple people all targeting one person and luring her out away from everyone and mutilated her. The stain of malice cannot be denied here. Seems like everyone has skin in the game for mental illness but no one gives a shit about the hatred and loss of life.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    We are not talking about most people though.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    You literally said "most people change". So yes, you indeed did bring most people into the conversation. Everyone here screams mental illness, but nobody wants to talk about the brutality of carving symbols into flesh and cracking bone with primitive tools.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    At 18 I probably would've done some equally fucked up shit. Murdering people for what they did before their brains finished developing is not only a waste of money but it gives the government absolute control over who lives and dies when I don't even trust the government to fill potholes correctly.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Not to mention the conditions leading up to this could have been partially the fault of the state as well. Not saying people don't have accountability for their own actions, but in the United States our mental health care is abysmal. So realistically, it's a failure of the state coming and going. Yet all these groups are ready and willing to worship the state.

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