The insane cost of the Christa Pike case includes her $26,000 recovery in intensive care

Following Christa Pike’s failed execution, the cost of capital punishment is being put under a microscope by a nonprofit in Tennessee. 

After a 1995 murder that saw Christa and her accomplices beat and torture a young woman to death, carving a pentagram into her body, Christa has been locked up on death row. She became the youngest person to be on death row at the age of 18. 

Fast forward 30 years, and Christa was set to be executed by way of lethal injection. It failed, and she was rushed to the hospital for life-saving treatment. Earlier this week, her attorney offered an update on her condition. 

“Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” he said. 

Credit: Tennessee Department of Correction

An organisation has called out the cost of Christa Pike’s execution 

Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is a Nashville-based nonprofit that seeks to abolish capital punishment, prevent violence, and support victims of violent crime. 

In an interview with The Sun US, its executive director, Stacy Rector, outlined just how expensive the death penalty is for taxpayers in the area. 

She said that, typically speaking, cases where prosecutors did not seek the death penalty cost $1.1 million across that criminal’s entire lifetime. In cases where the death penalty is sought but not carried out, that number jumps to $1.8 million. 

For cases that do seek and carry out capital punishment, like with Christa Pike, the figure is more like a staggering $3 million. This figure includes the cost of the penalty phase, state and federal appeals, prison costs, and the execution itself. 

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“I would guess her case has exceeded $3 million, before this botched execution attempt. I can’t even begin to guess what her hospital bill will be once this is all over – a hundred thousand plus?” she explained. “All is being paid by TN taxpayers.”

The intensive care bill alone is said to be $26,000, according to Nashville hospital rates. 

A study in Tennessee found death penalty trials cost taxpayers an average of 48 per cent more than cases where prosecutors sought a life imprisonment sentence. 

“I think the cost is a colossal waste of tax dollars spent pursuing death for a handful of people who are already incarcerated,” she said, adding afterwards, “Too many Tennesseans lack access to mental health care, and our Department of Children’s Services continues to struggle to serve children like Christa Pike, who have experienced terrible trauma and violence.”

She further argued that the vast majority of taxpayers aren’t aware of the costs, and that death penalty sentences do nothing but “trap” the victims’ families in decades of “trauma without the resources and space they need to begin their healing process.”

More upates on Christa are expected as she recovers in the hospital. 

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Featured image credit: Tennessee Department of Correction