Too traumatized to die? Women rally to halt execution of rape survivor

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agree about one thing when it comes to death row inmate Christa Pike: Her childhood was uniquely traumatic.

Before she was even in preschool, Pike was a rape victim. Her grandmother's boyfriend targeted her for years, sexually assaulting the child until she was in kindergarten, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.

At the age of 11, a neighbor raped Pike in an attack that caused an infection and preceded a suicide attempt at the age of 12. And at 17, a stranger attacked Pike while she was out walking, forced her into the woods, and raped her, court records say.

Because of that trauma, Pike's attorneys and dozens of women's advocacy organizations and sexual abuse experts are making a novel argument about why she should be spared from execution next week in Tennessee: They say that Pike will relieve the trauma of her rapes when corrections officers strap down her head, arms, and legs, and a male doctor gives her a lethal injection, possibly near her groin.

"She will relive the sounds, the smells, and the pain," wrote a dozen women's advocacy organizations in what's known as a friend-of-the court brief filed in the…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/