photo #9413203

Colleen Slemmer was a teenager. Christa Pike was convicted of killing her in 1996 and has sat on Tennessee’s dime for three decades.Thirty-two years of appeals is a policy choice. Evidence that included keeping a piece of the dead girl is why juries used the word they used. Delay is not mercy to the family. It is a second sentence they did not vote for. If the state is going to have a death penalty, it should not look like a boarding house.Americans can argue about capital punishment in the abstract. They should not rewrite this file as a gender seminar. Name Slemmer first. Then ask why a settled case became a generation. Carry out the judgment the court already entered or repeal the statute honestly. Do not keep a murdered kid’s family on hold so a feed can find a martyr. The skull in the exhibit is why the case never got kind. Leave the exhibit in the record. Remember the smile in the middle frame.