To the editor: Surrounded by medical employees assigned to look after her, Christa Pike is presumably experiencing essentially the most peaceable time of her excruciating life (“Christa Pike on a ventilator and unconscious after failed Tennessee execution, attorneys say,” Oct. 2).
When she was younger, social companies briefly removed Pike from her house after discovering that her mom’s live-in boyfriend was bodily and sexually abusing her. Shortly after, Pike wrote that she needed to kill herself; among the many causes, she wrote, was that she was raped by a neighbor when she was 11. Pike attempted suicide at age 12.
At 18, Pike and her allegedly abusive boyfriend senselessly killed a younger girl who ought to nonetheless be right here at present. Not but a authorized grownup, though just some months youthful than Pike, the 17-year-old boyfriend received a life sentence with the potential for parole. Pike obtained the demise penalty.
The lone girl on demise row in Tennessee, she spent nearly 30 years in solitary confinement. In the meantime, male inmates dealing with the demise penalty have been permitted communal actions.
Pike expressed remorse for the horrible crime she dedicated as a teen. Ultimately, she accepted her destiny, even making an attempt to assist the execution staff find a viable vein, according to her legal team.
More than 100 countries world wide have abolished the demise penalty. Decades of studies present that it doesn’t function a deterrent. It’s only a pitiful remnant of mankind’s barbaric previous.
Susan Christian Goulding, Seal Seashore
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To the editor: Whereas I agree that we have to look into why Christa Pike’s execution failed, I believe we additionally must look into the information for the rationale Pike was scheduled for execution.
Her legal professionals discuss by no means figuring out what torture she endured, and what bodily and psychological ache she might have gone by. However what we do know is that 32 lengthy years in the past, Pike and her boyfriend brutally murdered a 19-year-old woman, Colleen Slemmer.
Pike has lived 32 years longer than her sufferer. The execution ought to have been carried out a very long time in the past.
Deborah R. Ishida, Beverly Hills
