Category: Children in Prison

The Execution of Christa Pike

On By ChristopherIn Children in Prison, Death Row, In This World, Women Behind Bars1 Comment

By Christopher Monihan

I don’t even know where to begin today’s post. For the first time in a long time I am at a loss for words.

Christa Pike is an incarcerated person and let’s establish that here and now — she is a PERSON and not a prisoner, or inmate or whatever other stereotype word uninformed people have for those who are incarcerated — and she is on death row in Tennessee for a crime she committed when she was a teen girl. She has been on death row for nearly 32 years.

The state of Tennessee recently went to put her to death using so-called lethal drugs, of which the sourcing and particular nature are kept secret due to America’s growing opposition toward the death penalty. For nearly 30 minutes onlookers watched as Christa Pike endured being poisoned to death. For nearly 30 minutes the state of Tennessee carried out societal retribution.

Then, more than 30 minutes after the execution began, Christa Pike was rushed to a hospital.

As I write Christa Pike is alive. Officials in Tennessee are putting on their best ‘Uh, what happened?’ faces and the governor has ordered an investigation and review of what happened.

By now many of you reading this will have searched Christa Pike and read about her botched execution (which no doubt will be attempted again if history is any guide), and read about the crime that put her on death row, and about her accomplices who struck deals with the state of Tennessee to testify against her and save their own skin despite all three having participated in the murder of a schoolmate.

What you may not know about Christa Pike is that she was a child who grew up in an impoverished household and endured physical and mental abuse. She lived in a dysfunctional family that didn’t nurture her in those critical developmental years as a child that we now know are important. By the time she was 17 she suffered from numerous traumas. I know all of this because I got to know Christa Pike.

She and I regularly wrote to each other several years ago. I lost contact with her shortly after the covid pandemic, but understood why. Just mentally making it through another day on death row or even writing a simple letter was difficult for her on some days. In my letters with her she expressed numerous fears and personal struggles all of which were trauma related.

Christa is a bright girl who is optimistic but struggles to cope with traumas wrought from her childhood. As an adult she understood these truths. She often told me how she had worked to overcome her traumas and to heal.

The thing that struck me about Christa was how caring she seemed. She often talked about simply wanting to be loved. She shared her dreams of walking on the grass again, of being outside again, and of someday being able to travel to places in the world.

She shared with me the love she had for her family. Despite all that she endured in her childhood, she truly loved her family. I love my family and I think most readers can relate. She cherished the few visits she received and looked forward to a day where she could be with family again. This despite knowing she may never leave death row.

In the press Christa Pike is painted as a monster. People that do not know her have offered up their opinions to support this assertion. There is nearly nothing in the media that speaks to who Christa Pike is, but only of her worst moment in life. It is easy to dismiss a person sentenced to death when we label them as less than human.

What Christa and her accomplices did to a classmate in the woods one day a lifetime ago is inexcusable. It is obvious to anyone who reads about that day that Christa Pike did not arrive at that moment in a positive mental capacity. As a teen she was a follower, and greatly influenced by her accomplices. She has been severely punished for her actions, while her accomplices walk free.

I believe that we all atone for our sins. When we commit crime we face punishment and I accept that. But, when is punishment enough? Is it when we reach the stated end of a court ordered sentence of are released by a parole board or other governing authority? Is it when we reach a point in our lives where we have changed our thinking and overcome our traumas? Or is it when we are tortured for 30 minutes in a botched execution yet survive? Which is it?

The death penalty has been abolished in nearly every Western nation in the world. The United States holds itself in company with countries like Sudan, China, Russia, and Iran with clinging to the death penalty. We sacrifice a piece of our humanity when society clings to revenge.

Christa Pike is a human being who loves, and dreams of a better life and a better world. She cherishes thoughts of the past and of a comfort that time and trauma have not yet stole from her. She loves her family and friends. These are the things that she talked about with me.

The one thing that recurred in our letters was how she felt deep remorse for what she and her friends did. She owned her past and never once tried to shirk acceptance and responsibility. She even spoke of a hopeful future that she believed could still come true.

However, in our letters I realized that Christa Pike was in many ways still a teenage girl. She knows not life past 18 years old, she only knows four walls with a steel door. When we come to prison, it has a way of arresting mental development. Unless you are aware of this truth, you will always have one mental foot chained in the past. This is the Christa Pike that our society wishes to kill.

Now she lies in a hospital between life and death. The state of Tennessee tried for nearly 30 minutes to kill this girl and failed.

Has Christa Pike paid her debt to society? Or are we no more civil than the animals?

*Christopher Monihan is an author, journalist, and Stillwater Award recipient. He is incarcerated in Ohio.

If anyone reading this knows and is in contact with Christa Pike, please reach out to me through prison messaging app ” GTL GettingOut” (my booking number is A310612 and I am at ODRC Madison Correctional Institution), or by mail at :
Christopher Monihan A310612
MaCI / OMPC
884 Coitsville-Hubbard Road
Youngstown, Ohio 44505

Some of Us Are Looking At the Stars by Christopher Monihan

On By ChristopherIn Children in Prison, In This World, RehabilitationLeave a comment

I find strength and direction in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Oscar Wilde — all of whom were formerly incarcerated people. Their experience is that of every prisoner for the experience of incarnation transcends borders and time.

One of my favorite writings is the Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde. Wilde was imprisoned more than 150 years ago in Europe’s infamous Reading Gaol prison. A former socialite fallen from grace, Wilde is reborn through the trials and tribulations of his time while at Reading Gaol.

(“And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats / None know so well as I” — Oscar Wilde)

Wilde struggled to cope with what he witnessed at Reading Gaol. Fellow prisoners preying upon one another, executions by the Hangman’s nose; and the beating of an imprisoned child younger than 10 years old at the hands of Reading Gaol’s warders. The boy’s crime? Shoplifting bread for nothing more than to stave off Poverty’s cruel hand of starvation.

(“In Reading Gaol by Reading Town / There is a pit of shame.” — Oscar Wilde)

Every prison has its pit of shame, metaphorical for the dark acts kept hidden from the light of day. I am captivated by the words of a prisoner who lived centuries before me, for our experience transcends time. Every incarcerated person can relate. If I slow down but for a moment I can hear the heavy metal clank of Reading Gaol’s cell doors, feel the damp on my skin and taste the mustiness of air, for despite the separation of time some things in prison don’t change.

Early in my sentence the State of Ohio executed its incarcerated people with cyclical rhythm. On those days the gravity of execution weighed heavy on many of us.

Oscar Wilde too struggled with the executions of his time. He understood, as I do too, that we give up a piece of our humanity when society clutches revenge close to it’s heart.

(“To see the universe and all pervading spirit of truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of all creatures as one’s self.” — Mahatma Gandhi)

In the 1990’s I became a certified GED tutor. I tutored the kids that were here, juvenile boys the youngest of whom was 14 years old. Like Wilde, I felt for the kids.

My experience with the juveniles taught me a lot about myself. The boys suffered from childhood traumas  with many having been sexually abused; or came from broken homes; or came from the foster care system — many from all three and then some. The more I got to know them the more I realized they were just like other boys. They yearned for acceptance, love, and guidance. They dreamt the same dreams every teen boy dreams, except for them dreams were all they had.

(“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge.” — Martin Luther King Jr.)

My time tutoring the boys greatly impacted me. As Oscar Wilde did I too witnessed similar things, boys struggling to cope and make sense of their situation; and, boys who were beaten by the very people entrusted with their safety. What is a yong man to make of this? I was still a kid myself back then.

On a balmy afternoon when the sky was blue and unfettered, one of my students was murdered on account of his skin color. I was devastated. The evil that lurks in every prison had struck close to me.

I had poured my heart and soul into that kid and then he was no longer. My mind literally couldn’t process what had happened. I had gotten to know the boy and realized he simply yearned for a guiding figure in his life — it seemed all the boys yearned for that.

I hid my trauma and pain from family. I have always shielded them from unnecessary worry as most incarcerated people do. I’ve only recently begun writing about that long ago event.

In prison we experience things only our nightmares can prepare us for. We hide that which the world makes us hold, while groping through shadows searching for light.

Sometimes the act of breathing is a triumph in itself.

(“The greatest glory in living is(n’t) never failing, but rising every time we fail.” — Nelson Mandela)

After a lifetime on the Inside I have found myself. I know my purpose in this world and I live it each day. The adversities I have faced, the traumas I’ve overcome, and each dream that has crashed and burned has molded me anew. I arise from ash and dust every day.

Nelson Mandela was an angry youth when he was cast away to prison. Over 27 years of imprisonment he arrived at the same conclusions I have: There is no room for anger; only love defeats hatred, and hope illuminates darkness. To adopt these principles is to move the world for when you hate, hate finds you but when you love, love comes to us. Mandela exemplified these truths.

No one is infallible. No matter what a man or woman has done we are still part of the same family the human family. We are redeemable. However, we must first be willing to lower the sword of personal bias and judgement in order to see this.

(“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Oscar Wilde)

I never dwell on the past. I choose to pursue a new life, one based on core values of community, faith, family, integrity, honesty, and transparency. I credit the titans — Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Oscar Wilde — for having had courage to write about their experience. Through their works I find strength, purpose and direction.

In prison we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

*Christopher Monihan is a writer, author, journalist, and Stillwater Award Recipient. His newest book ‘Christopher and Friends: Reflections From Behind the Wall’ (ISBN: 979-8262373062) is available on Amazon.

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