Thirty years and six months.
That is how long the abolitionists — who are seldom, if ever, heeded — had to go en garde with their appeals for Christa Pike’s life—only to be swatted aside.
That is how long the Tennessee justice system prevailed on a sentencing that, if it were a car, would today be an antique.
A sentencing that held despite numerous cogs of the justice machine around it being tweaked, upgraded, and added to, including which crimes are punishable by death.
That is how long the parents of Colleen Slemmer — who at the age of 19 suffered a cruel and violent death — waited to hear that finally; the recompense promised to them was on the table with a sure date.
That is how long Christa Gail Pike had, to fathom the punishment meted out to her.
_Pixelated rendering of Christa Gail Pike—Dented Armour
https://dentedarmour.substack.com/p/christa-pike-the-inmate-on-whom-tennessees?r=3ihfqz
Thirty years and six months whirred by for those outside her walls, who wore a uniform too, just of a different colour, and who peeped at her through her Judas window every day.
And while they lived, changed careers, gave birth, married, loved, hated, laughed, cried, and died according to nature’s choreography, Pike’s destiny stood as still as the air in her solitary confinement, and the time in her reality.
Like her, it simply waited.
For 30 years and six months.
Finally, the day came: September 30, 2026.