Botched killing of a woman in a Nashville jail is an obscenity

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper

Michael Commane

It’s worth noting how we remember many of the specific things our parents say to us. Anytime my mother heard of some bad human behaviour she would say to all of us: ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. 

I didn’t know then she was quoting a line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns in which the last stanza finishes with: ‘Man’s inhumanity to man/Makes countless thousands mourn!’

My mother’s words jumped out at me last week when I heard of the gruesome story of the botched attempt of killing Christa Pike in the execution chamber in a Nashville prison in the United States. Christa Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for taking part in the killing of fellow Jobs Corps worker, Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the murder. 

From my reading around the case it would seem that Pike had a troubled background and said herself at some stage that she was mentally ill when she took part in the killing of Colleen Slemmer. 

Christa Pike was born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder FASD as a result of her mother’s heavy drinking during the pregnancy. She was raped by a neighbour when she was an 11-year-old child and attempted suicide the following year. 

She was physically and sexually abused by many of her mother’s boyfriends. At 15 she was sent to a detention centre for stealing sweets. It was a tough place. After her release she enrolled in a Jobs Corps programme and it was while there she took part in the murder of Colleen Slemmer; she thought Slemmer was stealing her boyfriend. 

A profoundly sad story from beginning to end.

This is the woman whom the United States wants to kill

Every aspect of the horrific story is appalling. I heard a journalist, who was present at the attempted killing, say that it really had no effect on him as he was just there doing his job. Where did I hear that before, the guards at Auschwitz?

Forty minutes after officials had administered two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital, she was still alive. It seems officials were about to call back in the chaplains. When I saw that I wanted to scream. How could any sane chaplain witness this sort of torture? But didn’t the women stay at the foot of the Cross despite the insanity of it?

Eventually when the officials realised their handiwork had not succeeded she was moved to a hospital to be resuscitated. The entire story, from beginning to end, is obscene and a nation that allows this sort of brutality has not much to offer the world. People do terrible things but do states have to follow suit? Yes, prison is a place of punishment; it is not a place for revenge. What sort of rehabilitation has she been offered over her three decades in prison?

It’s so easy to call someone a monster. Over the years I’ve spoken to many so-called monsters. I keep saying if all our ‘monsters’ were ever shown a scintilla of love and respect, would the world not be a better place.

What happened last week in Tennessee is outrageous.

I hope Pope Leo will have a word to say about it. Bet he will.