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Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media,
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powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Monday, October 5th, 2026.
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As of this recording, Krista Pike is alive. She's in
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a hospital in the Nashville area. She is unconscious. She
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is intubated and breathing through a ventilator. Her attorneys say
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she is critically ill, that she has significant injuries to
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both arms, and that staff are working to clear the
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lethal injection drug out of her body. That is where
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things stand five days after the state of Tennessee tried
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to execute her and could not. Her lawyers filed something
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on Friday that, for the first time, explains what they
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believe went wrong. And if they are right, it is
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worse than a drug that did not work. In Polk County, Florida,
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a jury is deciding whether Tony Wiggins should be put
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to death for murdering three men on a fishing trip.
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And in Boston this week, a jury will be chosen
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for the federal trial of a former police detective charged
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with killing a 23-year-old woman he had known since she
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was 12. Let's get into it. Colleen Slemmer was 19
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years old when Krista Pike murdered her in Knoxville in
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January of 1995. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996
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and has been on death row for 30 years. On
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Wednesday night, the state tried to carry that sentence out.
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Two doses of pentobarbital, more than two hours, and an ambulance.
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On Friday, her attorneys, Stephen Farrell and Luke Enin, filed
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an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court. And it
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contains the first real account of the mechanics. Here is
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what they wrote. That apparently at no point did any
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member of the execution team realize that the IV lines
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were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown
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and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part,
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not entering her body. And that instead of remedying that failure,
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the team prepared and administered the backup set of syringes.
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Sit with that sequence because it changes the story. The problem,
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according to her lawyers, was not that the drug failed.
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It is that the drug never fully got where it
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was supposed to go. A blown vein means the line
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has ruptured and the fluid is going into surrounding tissue
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instead of into the bloodstream. It is painful. It is
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also visible to anyone trained to look for it. Which
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is why her team says she has significant injuries to
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both arms. And then, on their account, the response to
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a failed line was not to establish a new one.
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It was to push a second dose through the same
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failed access. NBC News has also reported that there was
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no emergency medical oxygen in that execution chamber in case
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something went wrong. Now, I want to be scrupulous here.
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This is a filing by the defense. It is their characterization.
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Tennessee has said it followed every step of its lawful,
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established protocol, approved by the Attorney General's office. No court
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and no regulator has made any finding about what happened.
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the governor has ordered a third-party review, and that review
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has not started producing anything. So treat the mechanics as
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the defense's account until somebody independent confirms it. But notice
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what the filing is actually asking for, because it tells
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you what Pike's lawyers are worried about. They are not
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asking for damages. They are asking a judge to order
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the Department of Correction to preserve all relevant evidence from
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that night. The syringes, the lines, the logs, the records.
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Her attorney said preserving that evidence is essential to understanding
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what happened, to ensuring accountability, and to protecting her legal rights.
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That is a legal team that does not trust the
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state to keep the record of its own failure. And
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given that Tennessee paused executions for three years after an
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investigation found officials had not properly tested their drugs, I
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understand the instinct. Randy Spivey, an attorney with the Tennessee
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Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, told reporters he has witnessed
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five executions in that state and that Tennessee has shown, again,
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it is not capable of carrying one out consistent with
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basic human dignity. He has said the governor's review does
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not go far enough. And here is the question that
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nobody in American law has a clean answer to. Krista
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Pike is being kept alive by a machine, by doctors,
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at state expense, after the state tried to kill her.
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If she recovers, Tennessee's position is presumably that she still
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has a death sentence to serve. Her lawyers will argue
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that attempting it twice is a different constitutional question entirely.
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There is almost no precedent for this. The closest analog
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is a Louisiana case from the 1940s, when a teenager
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survived a botched electrocution and the Supreme Court permitted a
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second attempt. That decision is nearly 80 years old and
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the law around cruel and unusual punishment has moved a
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great deal since. This is going to be litigated for years,
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and it will be litigated regardless of whether Krista Pike
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ever wakes up. Colleen Slemmer was 19. Her mother, May Martinez,
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waited 30 years, traveled to that prison, and went home
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with nothing settled. Someone has to say her name. When
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we come back, a Florida jury decides whether a man
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is executed, and it does not have to be unanimous.
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Damian Tillman was 23. Kevin Springfield was 30. Brandon Rollins
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was 28. They were ambushed and shot near Lake Streetie
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in Frost Proof, Florida on the night of July 17, 2020,
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as they met up to go night fishing. A week
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ago Tuesday, a Polk County jury took under four hours
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to convict Tony Lee Wiggins Jr. on all counts. On Thursday,
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the same jury began hearing whether he should be executed.
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And there is one thing about Florida law that everybody
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listening should understand, because it is unusual and it is consequential.
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A death recommendation in Florida does not have to be unanimous.
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It requires 8 of 12 jurors. Florida changed that in 2023. Before,
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it required a unanimous jury. Now, a defendant can be
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sentenced to death with 4 jurors objecting. So the 12
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people in Bartow are not being asked to agree. They
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are being asked to count. Here is what they have heard.
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The prosecution's lead aggravating factor is the simplest and heaviest
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one available. Three men died. Three separate murders in one night.
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Then the family spoke. Ariel Bustos, Brandon Rollins' niece, told
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the jury that Brandon missed a lot of milestones in
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her life. Her 15th birthday, her graduation, the day she
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got her driver's license. That is what victim impact testimony
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actually is, not an argument. a list of things that
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did not happen. The defense case is mitigation, and it
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is the standard shape, which does not make it less real.
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They called psychologists who evaluated Wiggins in the years after
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the killings. Dr. Scott Mackless testified about what he described
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as a traumatic childhood, saying these were things Wiggins went
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through and suffered. They testified he struggled in school, was
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diagnosed with ADHD, and needed special education classes. They raised
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brain development. Their ask is life without the possibility of parole.
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And I want to make a point here that connects
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all three weeks of this. We have now covered four
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capital sentencing proceedings. Vicki Lynn Williams in Lake County, whose
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schizophrenia was presented to a jury and who was spared.
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Tomasz Kosowski in Pinellas County, who refused to present any
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mitigation at all and whose life is in the hands
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of one judge this month. Krista Pike in Tennessee, whose
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lawyers have spent 30 years arguing that her childhood abuse
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was never properly heard, and who is on a ventilator
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this morning. And now Tony Wiggins, whose defense is doing
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exactly what the system invites them to do, put a
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whole life in front of 12 people and ask them
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to weigh it against three deaths. Every one of those
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is the same procedure. The results have nothing in common.
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Brandon Rollins' mother, Dottie Payton, said after the verdict that
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they waited six years for it. The families have said
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they wanted the death penalty from the start. The judge
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is not bound by the jury's recommendation, but in practice,
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it carries enormous weight. Damian Tillman was 23. Kevin Springfield
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was 30. Brandon Rollins was 28. Someone has to say
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their names. When we come back, the medical examiner called
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it suicide, then took it back. Sandra Birchmore was 23
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years old. She was pregnant with a son. She was
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found dead in her apartment in Canton, Massachusetts in February
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of 2021. This week, jury selection begins in federal court
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in Boston in the trial of Matthew Farwell, a former
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Stoughton police detective who is charged with killing her and
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with causing the death of her unborn child. He is
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pleaded not guilty and he is presumed innocent. If convicted,
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he faces life in prison. We previewed this case Thursday
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when his attorneys were asking to move the trial out
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of Massachusetts entirely because of pretrial publicity. That motion was
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his second attempt. Jury selection is going forward in Boston.
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Here is the part of this case I did not
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have last week, and it is the center of everything.
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In May of 2021, the state medical examiner ruled that
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Sandra Birchmore died by suicide. In April of this year,
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the medical examiner withdrew that opinion and listed her manner
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of death as undetermined. Understand what that means for a trial.
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The government is prosecuting a homicide in a case where
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the official cause of death is formally unknown, not homicide, undetermined.
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That is an enormous thing for a defense attorney to
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stand up and say to a jury, and Farwell's lawyers
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will say it. Their position has been consistent since the
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charges were filed. They say Sandra Birchmore took her own life.
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They point to the original ruling. They point to what
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they describe as a history of suicide attempts and self-harm.
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And they point out that DNA testing excluded Farwell as
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the father of her child. The government's case is that
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Farwell met Birchmore through a police explorer's program when she
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was a child. that he sexually abused her for years,
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and that he killed her and staged the scene to
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look like a suicide to prevent her from disclosing it.
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The charge is killing a witness. So this trial is
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going to be about several things at once, whether she
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was killed or died by her own hand, whether a
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police department properly investigated the death of a young woman
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connected to one of its own officers, and what was
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done to a girl who joined a youth program at 12.
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Farwell resigned from the Stoughton Police Department in 2022. Prosecutors
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announced last December they will not seek the death penalty.
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And I want to say something about why this trial
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matters beyond the verdict. A medical examiner ruled this a
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suicide in 2021. That ruling stood for years. It was
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withdrawn only this past April, after federal investigators had already
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charged a man with murder. Whatever a jury concludes about
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Matthew Farwell, that sequence should bother everybody. because the number
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of deaths in this country initially classified as suicides, involving
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young women with a documented connection to someone in law enforcement,
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is not zero. And a manner of death ruling is
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the thing that decides whether anyone ever looks again. Sandra
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Birchmore was 23 and pregnant. She joined that program when
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she was 12. Someone has to say her name, and
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it is going to be a long trial in which
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most of the oxygen goes to the man accused of
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killing her. That's the show for Monday, October 5th. If
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you listen on Apple, there is a button at the
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top that says Listen Uninterrupted. $ 5 a month, no ads,
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thousands of shows across Calaroga Media, and 30 days free
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if you want to try it first. Everyone who already subscribes,
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thank you. And on Spotify, drop a comment on Florida.
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A jury there can recommend a death sentence with 8
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votes out of 12. Four people can think the state
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should not kill somebody. And it happens anyway. Should that
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decision require everyone? We stay on Tennessee this week. The
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Polk County jury could return a recommendation at any time,
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and testimony in Boston begins once a jury is seated.
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I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. A few notes on sourcing.
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On the Tennessee case. This episode was recorded before the
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start of the week, and Krista Pike's condition was as
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described in her attorney's Friday court filing. Her condition may
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have changed, The account of what went wrong during the
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execution attempt comes entirely from that defense filing and has
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not been confirmed by the state or established by any court.
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Tennessee has said it followed its approved protocol. The governor's
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third-party review is ongoing and has not issued findings. On
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the Polk County case, Tony Wiggins has been convicted and
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the penalty phase is underway. A jury recommendation is not
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a sentence. The judge imposes it. Under current Florida law,
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a recommendation of death requires at least 8 of 12 jurors.
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On the federal case in Boston, Matthew Farwell has pleaded
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not guilty and is presumed innocent, and the allegations described
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are the government's and have not been proven. His defense
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maintains Sandra Birchmore died by suicide. The state medical examiner
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initially ruled her death a suicide and in April of
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this year withdrew that opinion, listing the manner of death
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as undetermined. DNA testing excluded Farwell as the father of
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her child. Reporting has varied on the exact start date
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of jury selection. This episode discusses the death penalty, suicide,
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child sexual abuse, and homicide. If you are struggling, you
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can call or text 988 in the United States to
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reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If you have experienced
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sexual violence, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is available at 1-800-656-7000.