Christa Pike was a name I was not all that familiar with up until recently. However, on Sept. 30, something happened to her that I think paints a rather interesting picture of not only her conviction, but also of the death penalty as a whole.
Christa Pike was arrested and sentenced to death in 1996 after murdering a 19-year-old woman the year before. On Sept. 30, 2026, she was scheduled to be executed via lethal injection, but she somehow managed to survive after two rounds of injection.
She was hospitalized after the first attempt, where her lawyers believed she was brain dead; however, she regained consciousness and was returned to prison on Oct. 10, 2026. This was the second failed execution in Tennessee history.
After this incident, the Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner resigned from their position. Governor Bill Lee also placed a moratorium on executions for the rest of the year, which temporarily suspends them for the remainder of 2026.
This incident highlights something that only heightens the issues of the death penalty. The fact that this is not the first time something like this has happened really throws feelings about the use and effectiveness of the death penalty way out of whack.
The death penalty is something that makes sense to some, but not to others. At the end of the day, it comes down to your own morality and if you truly believe in redemption.
In some cases, the reasoning makes sense: There is someone out there who has done something terrible, and they show no remorse for what they have done. In fact, some say they will stop at nothing to get out and do it again. You would not be crazy for thinking the only way to keep people out of danger is to take their life before they hurt anyone else.
When it comes down to it, though, is that really something the government should be allowed to do? Make a choice about someone else’s life? Decide who lives and who does not?
Leaving the matter of their own people’s lives is not something that should be freely decided by the government, no matter who the person is or what they might have done.
In some cases, death can be considered mercy to people. Some would rather die and give up on trying to continue repenting than waste away in prison. But again, when it comes to human life, people’s opinions are always different. Their moral compasses shift their views to one way or another. A mercy to some may be considered a nightmare to others.
No one power should be able to control who lives and who dies, and the same could be said with the death penalty. Beyond the moral complications of that, the idea of the death penalty forgoes the idea of “redemption.” If someone is put into prison, is it not the desire that through their time, they grow and learn the error of their ways? If you push for the death penalty, could it not result in the death of someone who really tried to change and be better?
Being sentenced to prison should be a chance to try and fix what you have done—to make up for the harm you have caused and be able to re-enter the world as a changed person. When you give a power the opportunity to decide when someone is “too far gone” or “beyond saving,” it can lead to not only the deaths of people who are trying to change, but also the failure of death when it becomes a situation like Christa Pike’s.
You can give someone an inch, and they can take a mile. You give a person or group of people the power of life and death over others, and who knows what that could lead to in the future.
Michael Ardita can be contacted at
mardita@kscequinox.com
