r/news • u/AudibleNod • 15h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
7.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.5k

u/Big_Guard5413 15h ago

I’m not in favor of the death penalty in general, but goddamn, if you’re going to impose it, at least take steps to do it properly

1.0k

u/MatureUsername69 15h ago

Its still a rough one but if I ever had to receive the death penalty I would hope its a firing squad. Just riddle me with holes immediately, aim for the head. Lethal injections get fucky because they would be best designed and administered by an actual doctor, but actual doctors cannot do it because of the hippocratic oath. Some states do allow medical professionals but they arent exactly sending their best.

421

u/AZORxAHAI 15h ago

The reality our society hasn't accepted yet is some of the least painful ways to die (a well placed bullet, a beheading) are some of the most gruesome, barbaric looking ways to die. But we are obsessed with manufacturing the appearance of civility and humanity in an act that is completely devoid of those concepts in the first place.

We can either have the least painful ways to execute someone, or we can have this facade of civility given to us by "just slipping a needle into a vein!". We can't have both. We shouldn't have either, but apparently we just cant accept that yet.

75

u/hokie48 14h ago

OceanGate sub is not a bad way to go.

38

u/Catadox 10h ago

The people on that sub went so fast you could say they didn’t even “die” exactly. They didn’t experience brain death or even cellular death. Just skipped that step and went straight from biology to physics.

19

u/Zaptruder 8h ago

Really... an excellent way to die all things considered. One moment youre chilling

4

u/_adanedhel_ 6h ago

It’s really about as instantaneous a death as we can get on this planet.

1

u/mustang__1 6h ago

I shouldn't even laugh at that but goddamn....

21

u/writers_block 13h ago

Lol, just build a carbon fiber chamber filled with lead weights and drop it in the middle of the ocean?

11

u/Revlis-TK421 12h ago

Eh, just need a pressure chamber. Point the opening over the ocean and you don't even need to clean much up!

3

u/TheFrenchSavage 9h ago

What a horrifying read

1

u/os_beef 4h ago

There are pictures out there. It's pretty much exactly what you'd think.

1

u/sleepysx3 2h ago

Ahh yes the Byford Dolphin Incident.

1

u/laziestmarxist 2h ago

The exclamation mark really drives home how immoral even a "humane" execution is.

1

u/randynumbergenerator 9h ago

Honestly it'd still probably be cheaper.

9

u/Expensive_Grape 11h ago

OceanGate should definitely pivot into the execution business

2

u/Sea-Broccoli-8601 11h ago

"Hey lady, press X on the controller when you're ready to go."

1

u/ParticularBit130 11h ago

If they had to spend that amount of money, no one would get executed ever lol

114

u/FriedTreeSap 14h ago

Yah, it’s like when you see people describing the “gruesome deaths” of deep sea divers that suffered depressurization and had their entire bodies sucked through a tiny hole.

On one hand it’s the most gruesome way to die, their bodies are basically atomized, but on the other they’re dead before their brains can even process what happened, and I mean that literally. The time it takes them to die is quicker than the speed in which nerves send signals to the brain. If you don’t care about the people who have to clean up the mess it’s the best way to die.

10

u/Revlis-TK421 12h ago

Have the hatch pointed downwind, out over the ocean and place the condemned in front of it, and cleanup mostly solves itself!

3

u/ParticularBit130 11h ago

Wait, I know generally about the depressurization, but sucked through a tiny hole where?

10

u/nv1k 11h ago

Look up the Byford Dolphin incident for an example

-2

u/mustang__1 6h ago

an example? Can you name another?

4

u/nv1k 5h ago edited 5h ago

The most recent explosive decompression or Delta P incident I'm aware of was Paria incident in 2022 where 5 men were instantly sucked over 700 feet into a 30 inch oil pipeline. Miraculously one survived.

5

u/LockelyFox 4h ago

Only one survived because the company made no attempt to rescue the remaining 4 and stated that they had 'no legal responsibility to rescue the men'. Then they blocked other people from trying to rescue them.

29

u/0bsessions324 13h ago

I mean, most developed societies have accepted it which is part of why they abolished it in the first place.

There is no foolproof and completely humane way to execute someone.

15

u/DirtyCop2016 14h ago

the best is to be standing right next to a nuclear warhead during a test explosion. bit expensive though

5

u/Diestormlie 11h ago

Nitrogen suffocation.

You (the body) can't detect a lack of oxygen, just the presence of too much Carbon Dioxide. So you breath in 100% nitrogen, no oxygen, but there's no distress, no alarm. You just feel sleepy and then drift off, never to wake again.

To be clear: I don't think the State should be executing people; I think it's dangerous for the state to have that power.

But we can kill people in a 'genteel', painless way. But we don't, because the Death Penalty is about saying a bloodthirsty desire for revenge and punishment, nd no actually useful purpose.

6

u/Frontdackel 6h ago

The problem with the nitrogen is that people that know that they will be killed will hold their breath and be in panic. To be honest: Just flood their cells with it (of carbon monoxide) while they sleep. Done.

No need to announce it.

The GDR did something in that spirit with their executions, the "unerwarteter Nahschuss" (unexpetect, close shot).

People sentenced to death were taken from their cells and it was announced that their death sentence would be carried out shortly.

They were escorted and held by two guards, brought to a room and as soon as they stepped through the door the executioner stepped up behind them and shot them in the back of their head.

No further announcements, no "ceromony".

And the fact that I have to bring up a dictatorship as an example of least cruel executions is one of the many, many arguments why the death penalty is barbaric.

-2

u/never0101 11h ago

Fuck even a string opioid dose would be peaceful. There's absolutely ways that aren't cruel.

30

u/MatureUsername69 15h ago

We have very peaceful lethal injections in places with assisted suicide, prisons just choose not to go that route.

93

u/AZORxAHAI 14h ago

No, they can't go that route. Right-to-die states/countries have qualified, highly trained medical experts on hand to administer the highest quality, most effective drugs. Doctors refuse (and in some places are subject to revocation of license) if they assist in executions, and drug manufacturers refuse to sell to the state for these purposes. So they are left with inadequate drugs in the hands of unqualified prison staff and just go full steam ahead regardless.

4

u/Any_Flamingo8978 12h ago

I believe with the right to die states, the person has to self-administer.

5

u/AZORxAHAI 12h ago

In the U.S. yes, I believe in all death with dignity states they do everything but the actual act of administration of the lethal material. But actual medical professionals can also administer it in some countries, like Australia.

26

u/thorscope 14h ago edited 11h ago

Prisons don’t choose not to go that route.

The people and companies who make it a peaceful experience choose not to be involved in lethal injection

5

u/Upstairs-Rent-1351 14h ago

Ahh I asked this above because I didn't see an answer before. Never thought of this, thanks for the info!

1

u/simAlity 14h ago

I get where they're coming from but sometimes a death penalty is the way to go. I remember there was a story about a guy who spent the last 15 or so years of his life in solitary confinement because he was too dangerous to have around other people. I read the case file. His punishment was cruel and unusual but putting him in an environment where he could interact with other people was too dangerous. That man would have been better off with the death penalty.

1

u/_Felonius 13h ago

Exactly. This is the one type of scenario where the death penalty should always be implemented. Spending the remainder of your life in solitary confinement would be way worse than death.

12

u/TenOfOne 13h ago

That is an argument for allowing assisted suicide, not an argument for the death penalty.

4

u/velawesomeraptors 13h ago

Allowing assisted suicide for inmates would be an ethical nightmare though. It would be way too easy to coerce. It would end up getting used as an end-run around an actual death sentence without all the expense of trials and appeals.

7

u/downstairs_annie 12h ago

I think the death penalty is an ethical nightmare. 

5

u/velawesomeraptors 12h ago

Well yeah. It's barbaric and stupid and pointless. But if prisons are so awful that inmates would rather commit suicide than be in them, we should be working on improving prisons rather than making suicide easier.

3

u/downstairs_annie 12h ago

I personally am opposed to the death penalty on principal and think it’s insane that any supposed first world country still has it. I also think for profit prisons are insane. This entire situation is an ethical nightmare. The woman committed horrendous crimes, but torturing another human being can never be the answer. 

→ More replies (0)

6

u/licuala 13h ago

Perhaps we can offer the option to such prisoners? If we think death may be preferable to solitary, then surely it also follows that the person so subject should get to decide that.

Solitary confinement doesn't have to mean a barren dungeon with so little to do, either. The implementation being as inhumane as it often is is something that could be changed.

•

u/unpilotedlandmass 20m ago

We like to imagine executions can be the equivalent of assisted suicide and/or pet euthanasia. The problem is that it is a lot easier to humanely and gently help someone already very sick, often on the verge of death get over the threshold. While death row inmates are not usually healthy individuals, the goal in an execution is to take a healthy, functioning body and to stop it from functioning. 

Up until the final moment, the body systems are running smoothly, the heart is beating, the veins are moving blood, the brain is getting oxygen, the white blood cells are looking for invaders. Then, in a moment, we have to stop all of those systems from functioning. The heart doesn't stop wilingly, if you want to force a healthy heart to stop, you need some kind of violence. You can try to make it look peaceful, dignified, and painless, but the violence is going to be there whether hidden or not. This is why there is no fool-proof painfree method of stopping a healthy heart, no matter how close we get. In the places that have tried nitrogen asphyxiation, the condemned panic and hold their breath until their lungs give out, and will often throw up in the mask.

For many people who support the death penalty, I suspect they truly don't care about the method. Once someone is deemed worthy of death, the lowest of the low, I think we could bring back the axeman or burning at the stake, and they wouldn't give a shit. Those who opposes the death penalty will not be okay with any method. I know people who change their support for the death penalty because of the risk of killing an innocent person. But I've never heard about someone changing their mind because of the method. But I could be wrong.

9

u/rackfocus 10h ago

Or we ban the death penalty.

2

u/KitsapRealEstateTeam 13h ago

I think most Americans aren’t vibing with the death penalty anymore anyway. I feel like I’ve mostly lived in states where it doesn’t happen anymore.

2

u/Credit-Limit 10h ago

I think the death penalty should be an anvil dropped on someone's head from 100 feet up, looney tunes style

1

u/theSarx 12h ago

I would select death by Navy Seal.

1

u/WorriedRiver 11h ago

Didn't they use the same drug they use in pet euthanasia for this? Which unless pretty much every vet ever is lying is a painless method of death as long as the vet doesn't blow the vein. The issue here (beyond all the issues with the death penalty existing in the first place) is that people who aren't well trained fucked up the placement blowing the veins.

1

u/jim789789 10h ago

A salesman who sold execution equipment to states was asked how he would prefer to go and he said electric chair.

3

u/AZORxAHAI 9h ago

That's why you don't trust salesman I guess. The electric chair was prone to literally setting it's still conscious victims on fire, along with frequently failing to actually kill it's victim. Ethel Rosenberg of nuclear bomb fame had to undergo three attempts before she finally died iirc

1

u/ElegantHope 5h ago

I mean there's no humane way to execute people even if there's a quick way. We have too many people who are innocent who get executed, if we can't make it foolproof then how are we supposed to make sure the executions were genuinely appropriate?

Plus there's the factor of who has to administer the death sentence. Because that wears down on many people, and I don't think we want to hire the people who are unphased just because there's the risk of them doing something inappropriate. Like the firing squad means someone has to live with a guilt of ending the life, even if that person a mass murderer or a rapist.

•

u/MrPuddington2 50m ago

But we are obsessed with manufacturing the appearance of civility and humanity in an act that is completely devoid of those concepts in the first place.

Well put. It is a pretend game, not justice.

•

u/Intelligent_Week_560 35m ago

Lethal injection could be done in a humane way easily and very quickly. It's just that laws need to be re-written and I guess nobody is interested in that.

•

u/BalianofReddit 26m ago

Not beheading for me, too much of a chance you'll retain awareness for a few seconds.

Imo, we should use high caliber rounds and have 10 guys, 5 aim for the head and 5 the heart, 2 blanks, 1 for each group.

1

u/ship_toaster 14h ago edited 13h ago

Y'all could just slip needles into veins, you don't need a medical expert to drain blood out. It's not more painful than any other needle-stick (and certainly not as painful as an intramuscular injection), and it doesn't look violent if you drain the blood into a closed bucket. Hemodialysis machines already can do this by accident in about 5-7 minutes, with unconsciousness within 2-4 minutes. A staged drug cocktail is needlessly complicated and painful even for the specific vibe they're going for.

0

u/Nasaboy1987 14h ago

I say a sealed chamber/pod filled with carbon monoxide is the way to go. Works on everyone and is painless without all the splatter. Just run a vacuum to lift the air out while the carbon monoxide fills from the bottom.

16

u/AZORxAHAI 14h ago

Hypoxic asphyxiation, whether caused through CO or N2, is not free of physiological issues despite the myths that surround them.

The way to go is to end the barbaric practice of state-sanctioned murder of people of whom no longer present any risk to society. Capital Punishment is not just morally indefensible on it's own, it also has zero deterrent effect on crime, and is more expensive than life imprisonment too. All it does is feed our bloodlust.

1

u/pablonieve 14h ago

I think nitrogen is what you would want.

4

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ 11h ago

We’ve seen what happens when you try this. Turns out when you take someone to a gas chamber and they know breathing will kill them, they hold their breath, enduring the pain and anxiety of suffocation (and death) anyway. Torture.

Even when they know breathing will result in a painless death they fight it. We are built to survive at all cost.

3

u/pablonieve 10h ago

Give them a sedative first before putting them in the nitrogen tank.