Christina Marie Riggs

This is a case that I heard about a very long time ago and has always stuck with me. I have often stated that the cases that involve the murder of a child are the most difficult and in that respect this case was no different. However, this is a case where I disagree with the prosecution as to the motive behind the murders. According to prosecutors Christina Marie Riggs murdered her two children, five year old Justin Thomas and two year old Shelby Riggs, because they “were an inconvenience” in her life. This would not be an uncommon motive when it comes to parents, especially single mothers, killing their own children but I just do not see that being the case here. As you read on I will let you be the judge whether you agree or disagree to the motive.

On November 5, 1997 Christina Riggs' mother could not reach her so late in the afternoon she went to the home Christina shared with her two children in Sherwood Arkansas. Some reports say that the children were in their own beds, covered with blankets, while other reports claim that after murdering her children Christina carried them into her room and placed them on her bed. Regardless when her mom arrived at the home the children were dead and by all accounts Christina should have been also but she was found to be unconscious with labored breathing. Investigators found at least one suicide note in the room also. It was to Christina's ex-husband, Jon Riggs. Christina was taken to the hospital where they pumped her stomach and saved her life. Upon her release she was arrested and charged with the murders of her children.

It seems that Christina never denied that she had murdered her children. She was a nurse at a local hospital and on November 4^th she had procured drugs that she would use that evening. She went home “armed” with morphine, amitriptyline, an anti-depressant that is sometimes used as a sedative as well as potassium chloride. Potassium chloride is one of the drugs that state use in executions. The plan was that she would give her children the amitriptyline, then the morphine before she administered the potassium chloride. She sedated both children and then began administering the potassium chloride to her son, Justin. Problems arose when she did not dilute the medication and it began to burn the vein in Justin's neck. He awoke and was in terrible pain. Scrapping her plan, Christina picked up a pillow on the bed and smothered Justin until he stopped breathing. Since things had not gone as she had planned with Justin, when it came to Shelby Christina decided not to use the potassium chloride and simply smothered her. Then, as I stated earlier, some reports say she covered them in their own beds while others say she carried them into her room and placed them in her bed.

Whether Christina had already written the note to Jon Riggs or she did so at this point is unclear. However, in the note she stated that considering that they had different fathers she did not want her children to be separated upon her death. Jon Riggs had actually all but raised Justin but legally he was not his father. Plus, there had been a situation between Jon and Justin in when Jon had struck him which had all but been the catalyst to their divorce. Whether the incident was reported to authorities is not clear but if it was then it would have been doubly difficult for Jon to get custody of Justin despite the fact that apparently his biological father had not been in his life. But, whether she wrote the note then, or simply left it to be found does not necessarily matter. After murdering her children Christina allegedly took twenty-eight amitriphyline pills and then injected herself with undiluted potassium chloride. Keep in mind she did this knowing the pain that it had caused her son when she had injected him. It would be said later that she injected herself with enough of the medication that it could have killed five people. And yet, she survived.

At her trial in June of 1998 her defense argued that she was not guilty by reason of insanity. They argued that she had suffered from sexual abuse first by a step-brother lasting several years and then later by a neighbor. They cited her depression issues that were often brought upon by failed relationships as well as financial difficulties. But, they also argued that it had been Christina's intentions to die that day. I have to say if the experts were correct that the amount of drugs she consumed and injected should have killed her, and a few more, then I have to agree with the defense. This of course does not absolve Christina of killing her children but it does appear that her intentions were to kill herself also. The defense also claimed that many of her problems had begun in April of 1995. At the time Christina and Jon Riggs were living in Oklahoma City and she was working as a nurse at a local hospital. The defense would claim that she was assigned to a triage station close to the bombing site and that it had caused PTSD and depression. Soon after the couple had moved to Sherwood to be close to Christina's mother.

First the prosecution argued that they could find no proof that Christina had been working in what they called the “bomb zone” treating patients. While Oklahoma City is a very large city on the day of the bombing there were 168 deaths and another nearly 700 people injured. It seems unlikely that anyone who lived in the area, let alone worked in a hospital at all would not have been affected. I obviously cannot say for certain how close Christina worked with victims but it is likely safe to say that the days following the bombing were chaotic and medical professionals were well needed and worn thin no matter where they were. Even if we conclude that Christina did not work at a hospital near the site in which got a majority of the victims it is likely that whatever hospital she was working out was overworked either through the movement of patients from other hospitals or from extra patients coming for the room. But, this is not the only, or even the main area in which I disagreed with the prosecution. They would claim that Christina murdered her children because they were an “inconvenience” to her and accused her of often locking the children in a room for hours while she went out at night to “karaoke bars.” I am unsure where they got the information about her nights out, or whether that was true, but I do not really think it matters because I disagree that she murdered her children because in essence they cramped her lifestyle. If that had been the case then she would have never attempted what I consider to be a full-fledged legitimate suicide attempt. Her mother did not find her until nearly nineteen hours after she had injected herself, at a time in which by all accounts she should have already been dead.

Throughout her trial Christina showed extreme remorse and when the jury returned a verdict of guilty she refused to allow her attorney's to argue against the death penalty for her. She continually stated she wanted to die and wanted the sentence. It took the jury only fifteen minutes to give her that. Aside from the automatic appeal that she was all but forced to file Christina stopped all other efforts to save her life.

On May 2, 2000, just two and a half years after she had murdered her children, Christina Marie Riggs was executed by the state of Arkansas. She was the first woman executed by the state since 1845 and only the fifth woman executed in the United States since the death penalty had been re-instated in 1976. When adequate veins in her arms could not be found Christina agreed (apparently her consent was required) to have her wrists used. The ironic thing is that the State of Arkansas injected her with the same thing that she had injected herself with less than three years prior. After he execution her lawyer stated “It started out as a suicide and it ended as a suicide.”