Should Christa Pike Live?

by Rod Williams, Oct. 19, 2026- What should happen to Crista Pike now that the State has tried to execute her twice and failed? 

The article below, in The Dispatch, examines what should happen now. The article summarizes the horrendous crime that led to Christa Pike's death sentence and examines the failed execution attempts and then looks at the law and the ethics.

Would putting Christa Pike to death violate the Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment?"  The article looks at a similar case and compares and contrasts these cases.  It concludes that, "the state has already inflicted a cruel and unusual punishment on Christa, and to attempt to do so again would appear to violate the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. "

The article also looks at the bloodlust for execution and the ethical considerations.  I am also appalled by those who enthusiastically want this execution to occur.  It seems to be similar to those who wanted  to livestream the firing squad execution of  Nidal Hasan, the ex-Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. 

Public hangings used to be big public spectacles, where the town would turn out and bring their children. I don't want to return to those days, but many do. 

There is a fairly prominent MAGA activist here in Nashville by the name of Dan Meridith who recently rhetorically asked if, by not wanting to finish the job of executing Crista Pike, we believe we were more compassionate than God? He quotes an Old Testament Bible verse that calls for "all the men of the city" to stone people to death. I do not want to return to public stoning, so I guess I am more compassionate than God.  

The Bible also calls for stoning to death of children who are stubborn and rebellious: “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear." (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) 

I'm glad we no longer stone to death stubborn and rebellious children. Something has changed in the last few years to where people are either more cruel and have a greater bloodlust, or they are no longer hiding it. 
The article in The Dispatch ends with this conclusion:

The courts will probably rule that an additional attempt at executing Pike would be unconstitutional. But legality aside, commuting her sentence to life in prison is probably the right thing to do. Justice would still be served since most people convicted of murder in the U.S. serve a term (not life) in prison. What’s more, we routinely commute sentences for good behavior. If the testimonies of her fellow inmates have any veracity at all, Pike, despite her horrible crime and profound brokenness, is a person changed, even if just a little bit, for the better.

The article is worth reading in full:  

 A second execution attempt strains legal and ethical standards.

by Lydia Dugdale, The Dispatch, Oct. 19, 2026 -  Christa Pike’s botched execution in Tennessee last week raises a host of questions about what comes next, what Gov. Bill Lee should do, and what is meant by “cruel and unusual.” These are legal questions, but they are also ethical and political questions, and they demand our consideration. .... (link)

It is my hope that Gov. Lee will commute Christa Pike's sentence to life imprisonment. 

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