Christa’s mother drank heavily and used drugs while she was pregnant with Christa resulting in brain damage which caused Christa’s bipolar disorder.
When Christa was 14 months old, she suffered a seizure. Her mother refused to leave the bar to take her to the hospital.
After Christa was born, her mother left Christa and her brother without food, crawling in dog feces, while she drank with her boyfriends.
Her mother allowed her boyfriends to beat Christa and twist her nipples. One beat Christa with a belt and sexually assaulted her.
When Christa tried to commit suicide after that, a psychiatrist told her mother Christa was severely depressed and needed help. Her mother denied Christa further help and her bipolar disorder was not treated.
When Christa was raped at 11 by a man in the neighborhood, her mother denied it until she developed an infection and the man was arrested.
When Christa was raped at 17, one year to the day before she committed murder with her boyfriend, Christa’s mother didn’t care.
But Christa was happy to see her mother in court during her trial and all she wanted was a hug.
Yes, Christa committed an extremely heinous murder at 18. But I just wanted to share a little bit of her story with you — especially for all the folks rejoicing at her execution.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/28/tennessee-woman-execution-christa-pike
That’s the whole issue. It’s like 50% actual narcissists without remorse and 50% just sad circumstances all around.
The death penalty is an extremely cruel way to “get rid of the problem” by fighting the symptom. But to get there, so many things would have gone wrong, and we should always prioritize fixing those things before ever thinking about punishment.
People love retribution but the truth is you can torture a murderer and that still won’t bring the victim back and even then that’s not satisfying to the victim’s family.