Oct. 7, 2026
BREAKING: Christa Pike Was To Be Taken Off Life Support Hours Before She Awoke
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RSS Feed In a press conference following an emergency hearing called by the attorneys of Christa Pike, we learned more details about how and when Pike regained consciousness. Her attorneys say they believed Pike was brain dead Monday evening and was going to be taken off life support Tuesday, when she suddenly woke up and asked, “Where am I? And who are you?” To the medical staff. A judge ruled in favor of Pike’s attorneys, ordering the state to preserve ANY and ALL evidence surrounding the botched execution.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, October 7th. She survived. She's alive. She's awake. She's talking. And Krista Pike is also now winning. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Ropes. We just finished watching an emergency court hearing related to Krista Pike. And I say winning because she just picked up a legal victory. But it made clear, Robes, this is just the beginning of what's going to be a hell of a process.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:00:30
Speaker 3: So a judge did rule in favor of Krista Pike's attorneys demanding that the state of Tennessee, the Department of Corrections, preserve all evidence, including stuff that was thrown in the trash bin. in case and to preserve, they want to move forward with any sort of cruel and unusual punishment claims, whatever it may be, they will use this information for, whether it be for future executions or for litigation coming from Krista Pike herself. The judge ordered the state of Tennessee to preserve it all.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: So that was, uh, yes, a big win. It was interesting. We'll get into some of the legal back and forth that took place. That was very, it was really interesting in court and the judge, um, Clearly had questions for the state. We'll get into that. But also, Rose, another big note, a big nugget. The attorneys did a press conference afterwards. And I guess of most note is how Krista Pike is doing right now. Now, this was interesting to hear, and this is the information we've been chomping at the bit to get.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: Yes, we got a lot of details about what happened. And probably the most shocking thing we heard was her attorney told a gaggle of reporters that they believed on Monday night that Krista Pike was brain dead. There have been relatives of Krista Pike's who have also spoken to local media saying they too were told that. that Krista was brain dead or believed to be brain dead. And the plan had been on Tuesday at some point to take her off life support and to let her die. And apparently Krista Pike shocked everyone.
00:02:10
Speaker 2: By waking up and saying, where am I and who are you?
00:02:15
Speaker 1: Rose, this is going into mythology now. This is now something... Else, we get the details later from a medical professional of exactly what is going on, what happened, was this some kind of medical miracle? You're telling us she's brain dead? No, doctors know, baby, if you've got brain activity or not, you're going to wake up. This kind of goes to a lot of the point of what the attorneys were making. Everything's so vague, and it's so general, and it's so secretive. And I understand, Rope, she is still a ward of the state. She is still... In their eyes, a violent criminal who is a threat to any and everybody around her. And they're treating her as such. Now, I understand her attorney's making an argument that she shouldn't be treated exactly like that, given what you all did to her. But this was some of the back and forth going on. But that detail, and also some of the stuff makes sense. Her condition, her being shackled to the bed, it came up quite a bit. And then the condition, they were describing her arms in a pretty grotesque way. to a certain degree.
00:03:14
Speaker 2: They did.
00:03:15
Speaker 3: They said that right now she can't move either arm and that the way he described the way her hands looked, because they have been able to see her, he said if you blow up a surgical glove, that's what her hand looks like. They said she can't move either arm. She says she cannot eat right now because she can't swallow. I think that's fairly typical after being intubated for that long and being on a ventilator, so that isn't that out of the ordinary.
00:03:40
Speaker 2: But they said we don't.
00:03:41
Speaker 3: Know what the toll will be, what the emotional toll, what the physical toll will be with what she went through, they were asked how she was doing. And the attorney said she asked about her team, first of all. She asked about the victim's family. They did say that in the press conference. And they described her demeanor as angry and confused. They say she doesn't remember everything. She remembers some things about the execution itself, But there is a lot that she does not remember.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: Robe, she went to sleep thinking she was never going to wake up. This was death. This was the end of her life. She woke up almost a week later. What could have been going through your mind, babe?
00:04:28
Speaker 3: You're supposed to be dead. Yeah, where am I and who are you? You might be thinking, am I in purgatory?
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Am I in hell?
00:04:34
Speaker 3: Am I... In heaven, am I in an afterlife somehow? But I'm sure pretty quickly she saw that her feet were shackled to the bed and her arm is shackled to the bed.
00:04:44
Speaker 2: Her lawyers, by the way, are trying to get... her arm unshackled.
00:04:48
Speaker 3: And they say, they're saying that the medical professionals are asking that that take place because of the condition of her arm. And so I think the judge was actually had a really good answer to that. She said, give me an affidavit from a member of her medical team who says they need her arm to be unshackled and then I'll make my ruling.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: I think that's fair.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: I think so, too.
00:05:20
Speaker 1: I know in all theory, Robes, she is not in any condition to get up, walk out, escape. I know that in theory, but if you're the warden in charge of that prisoner, that's not your job. Your job is not to be sympathetic. Your job is not to say, oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. So I get that to a certain degree why she's shackled to the bed.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: Yes, her feet would remain shackled. This would just be about having the other arm be free. There were also questions from her lawyers about accessibility, being able to actually reach her, have her be able to reach them as they're trying to get A tablet to her. So when you're a prisoner, even if you're in death row, you have a tablet and it's monitored by the Department of Corrections and you can only communicate with certain people. And it's and again, it's monitored. So she hasn't been able to reach out to her attorneys. Her attorneys expressed having difficulty communicating. seeing her, communicating with her. So they're trying, they had the judge try and step in and create a situation that would be similar to what she would have if she were behind bars. And the judge agreed, nothing should change in terms of her ability or accessibility to her lawyers just because she's in a hospital versus being behind bars. But clearly there are some security issues that have to be figured out. And that does, all of that makes a lot of sense.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: Okay, all that, That stuff made sense. Those are fair arguments. But this whole hearing, Robes, was supposed to be about, and it is, it was an emergency hearing put together. And you had attorneys for the state and you had her two attorneys in there as well. It was all supposed to be, Robes, about an emergency request for the state of Tennessee to preserve everything having to do with this execution. The state was pushing back on that. Their argument is, Well, of course, we're already doing it, so we don't need another order. We'll get into that in a second. But the first point of business, Robes, was jurisdiction. I was amazed how long it went back and forth. And it was a little confusing. You had to follow this case for a while, but you had jurisdiction. Them essentially arguing whether or not this court had jurisdiction to make a ruling of any kind. This is how complicated this case is. Listening to them, I'm like, oh, wow. Wait a minute. And then the state had come in previously and argued that this same court did not have jurisdiction on something. And then they're going back and forth. You want relief? for an event that's already happened instead of relief for the execution before it happened. All this stuff was, bro, this is going to be a mind-boggling, no one has ever dealt with this before type of case.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the judge said that. Basically, yeah, we're in uncharted territory. Truer words could never have been said. You could see these obviously experienced lawyers, an experienced judge, I think her name is Chancellor, but Aisha Miles of Davidson County Chancery Court Look, it was all done so, I was impressed with such complicated material and such unprecedented, uncharted territory, how they were all maneuvering.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: It was fascinating to watch.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: Because it seemed like all of them were treading a little carefully because they didn't know. Like no one's dealt with this. Robes, the arguments were fascinating to me. Does this court have jurisdiction? We sent it to another court. They dealt with it. But now it's back here. I thought I closed the case. She actually said that. I closed this case out. You want me to open something back up? Robes, this was fascinating to listen to. But the key, Robes, came down to another case. So whose side was arguing this? This was the prosecution or the state was arguing, Judge, you don't need to issue an order. for us to preserve this evidence. You don't have to do it because there's another case, a federal case that ain't got nothing to do with nothing in this court. A federal case already put the Tennessee Department of Corrections under a particular order that requires them to preserve everything having to do with an execution. He was saying, judge, we're already doing this. So no matter what order you issue, we're already doing the exact same thing. It's not gonna change anything we do. That was their argument. Judge didn't necessarily buy that.
00:09:43
Speaker 3: No, she said you still need to, and she thought it was important to absolutely make sure this evidence is preserved and that there's an order to do so.
00:09:54
Speaker 1: By her court. Correct.
00:09:57
Speaker 3: And yeah, she said she, you know, because they were already... saying, hey, look, we've already collected all the materials from the execution chamber. We've got the observation logs. We have the medical waste and the products, the EKG readouts. But they were also saying, but we might not have everything. The IV lines were cut and they may be at the hospital now. And so there was just, it was really interesting to think they were supposed to be photographing all of the, it was like, can we go in there and take stuff out? Do we have to leave things? Is it a crime scene kind of? I mean, that's what I was hearing when I was listening to them. It was almost as if they were treating people that death chamber as a crime scene with crime scene tape and nothing can be removed and nothing can be touched and everything must be preserved as evidence. And that's kind of what it seems like the judge ordered the Department of Corrections to do.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Ropes, she started going through a list of stuff. EKG, she said the trash in the trash can needs to be preserved. Everybody who was a part of this, every record they have, every email they sent. Roe, she went as far as saying, if anything I just explained was already accidentally deleted, you need to make a good faith effort to go recover it. Some kind of way. Roe, she wants everything. She mentioned Signal. She mentioned encrypted apps. She mentioned, I want everything saved. You talk to the governor. Yeah, I want that saved too.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: I mean, that makes sense, though.
00:11:29
Speaker 3: And look, to that point, Krista Pike's attorneys, when they began their press conference, they said, yes, obviously they want all the evidence preserved for potential future litigation. But more importantly, they claim this hearing today, this emergency hearing, was about transparency. And look, I think that's in everyone's best interest. That's in the state's best interest. That's in the Department of Correction's best interest. And in the American public's best interest. And certainly, obviously, in Krista Pike's.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: Did the public know who was in that room with her?
00:11:59
Speaker 2: I do think so.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:12:01
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know of names because, look, people who are passionately opposed to the death penalty, and if you're a licensed medical professional, you might lose business. You might lose credibility. You might suffer professionally if your clients, your patients, people who do business with you vehemently oppose the death penalty and then... come to learn that you're participating in a process, they abhor. So I do understand the identity of the personnel inside might need to be private.
00:12:36
Speaker 1: Wasn't that historically, right? Public executions, the executioner bore a hood, did they not?
00:12:42
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And look, executions are in this country. generally cloaked in secrecy.
00:12:49
Speaker 3: I think that just kind of like grand juries, for obvious reasons, operate in secrecy. So do executions and executioners. And especially when it comes to how each state gets these drugs, just any details surrounding where they come from, their origins, and yes, who administers them. That's important for people to prevents any sort of backlash for participating in a legal procedure. But if people find out who takes part in it, given all of the emotional feelings people have attached to this, yeah, it gets tricky.
00:13:30
Speaker 1: Isn't that a shame? That's what they do. And they find you do anything they don't like. They start going after you. And what's the thing they call it when they put the negative reviews on your business? Oh, yeah. What's that called? There's a word for it.
00:13:41
Speaker 2: I forgot. When they give you like zero stars.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: Exactly.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:13:44
Speaker 3: But this would be something where, yes, businesses could be hurt. Companies could be hurt. Pharmaceutical companies could be hurt. Medical professionals could be hurt. So yes, this is going to be a delicate dance when you're trying to get information about where these drugs came from, how they were stored, who administered them. And look, a lot of times these injections are administered by people who have limited medical training or certainly limited experience in in putting in an IV because as we've talked about in previous podcasts, a lot of, and I would probably say it's fair to make the statement that most medical professionals, most doctors would not want to participate for ethical reasons.
00:14:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just, I don't, again, I don't know how it goes. It's cloaked in secrecy to a certain degree, but there's gotta be, right? It's like a trained group. that can travel to these, that knows how to do this. You mentioned this, and yes, probes, for your cancer, you spend a lot of time in a lot of hospitals getting a lot of needles poked in you. But I'm so sure you could go over there to the hospital crosstown here in Manhattan and pick out five people that you probably know personally who could get that line in the first time.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Right, but would they be willing to... to take that expertise.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: No, no, no. What I'm saying is not they shouldn't be forced or even asked. What I'm saying is it's possible to train someone who knows how to do this. Now, is that a matter of you having to do it over and over and over for years and this is just your job in a hospital? Do you have to get that good? I don't know. Or do you just have to train? Do you have to have recurrent training? Do you have to have ropes? There should be a unit of execution needle experts. That when there's an execute, we don't have that many in the country every year, Robes. We're up to 30 this year. Robes, pick somebody from this expert group who is not, who is certified, who is not going to let this ever happen. If you can't do that, get rid of the lethal injection. Get rid of it.
00:15:53
Speaker 2: I think most people would agree with you.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: Get rid of lethal injection. It's supposed to be the humane one that makes us all feel better.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: It makes us feel better.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: It certainly doesn't seem to be making the inmates feel better as they die or almost die. But when we come back, we're going to hear what the state had to say about whether or not they plan to go forward with another execution for Krista Pike.
00:16:27
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: We just watched a fascinating court hearing and a press conference following all about Krista Pike, her current condition, and what the state of Tennessee now must do as her lawyers and her decide the next steps for them legally from a litigation standpoint. But bottom line, the judge ruled in favor of Krista Pike's attorney ordering the state to preserve everything from the trash bins to the surveillance footage to the call logs to emails to accidentally deleted emails to anything and everything possibly associated with that September 30th execution before, during, and after.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: Before they say medical waste and they went to like biological waste. They want everything.
00:17:16
Speaker 3: She ticked off every box possible.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: She did. And then some. She gave them more than they got sorts of.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: She made a very large umbrella of things.
00:17:23
Speaker 3: That the state must operate under, but also under questioning from the judge, we heard directly from the state and they asked, she would, they were asked specifically about whether or not the state plans to pursue executing Krista Pike. Again, his answer was, I cannot say there is no current order basically right now. And so that's how they couched it. But it's interesting because yes, midterm elections. are what, how many weeks away now? And you have a Democrat and a Republican up for governor and they have very different views and they are already weighing in on this Krista Pike controversy.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Not surprising. We heard pretty quickly from Marsha Blackburn about.
00:18:10
Speaker 3: Her desire to continue executions in her state and her desire to explore any and all options So that these types of executions can continue.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: Maybe not by lethal injection. Maybe by, say, an electric chair.
00:18:27
Speaker 1: If you tell America that, how's America going to feel about that? We're getting rid of everything. We're just going to electrocute. We're going to bring the chair back.
00:18:34
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness.
00:18:34
Speaker 3: I would imagine you would get a passionate response.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: A different response, right?
00:18:40
Speaker 2: For or against, depending on who you ask. That's right.
00:18:42
Speaker 3: And Jerry Green, the Democrat running for governor right now, he sorry, Green has stated that she would extend the current pause that we've seen Bill Lee put into place following the Krista Pike. So he's said there are no more executions in the state of Tennessee for the rest of the year. while we await the results of an independent investigation into what went wrong. But she is saying that she would continue that pause or moratorium, however you want to put it, and have death row inmates like Krista Pike serve out a life sentence instead. So very different reactions to the same situation. And look, that'll be something that the voters of Tennessee will get to decide, knowing at least where each candidate, both women, by the way, so interesting, where they stand. This has got to be the biggest story coming out of Tennessee leading into the midterm elections.
00:19:39
Speaker 1: Biggest story in the country right now.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: It really is.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: To a great degree. So it's all they're buzzing about there in Tennessee. How does that state feel about the death penalty? How does that state, who is that state going to hold responsible? for what happened? You have an outgoing governor, so can't hold it against him. It's a Republican state. It's a Republican-leaning state. It's a conservative state. In many areas, it's a rural state. I mean, what does the latest polling tell us about how the people of Tennessee feel about this? No matter how the people of Tennessee feel, baby, They're good folks. They're decent folks. And there's nobody who is in favor of what happened to her. It doesn't matter. We all know, just generally speaking, there may be somebody out there, and you might have it in the back of your mind, well, she got what she deserved after what she did to that girl in 95.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and to that point, I was wondering how people... emotionally reacted to Krista Pike's lawyer. He's made statements like this before, but to hear him stand in front of these microphones, in front of these reporters and say, Krista is a survivor, that hit me all the wrong ways. I don't know how much he or they should lean into that because that's the danger here. Look, no one wants, I don't believe any decent human being wants anyone wants any other human being to suffer, generally speaking. Even if they did horrible things, yes, you might want them to die. Yes, of course, you want them to pay for their crimes.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: But to paint someone who.
00:21:18
Speaker 3: Was convicted of one of the most evil crimes I have ever read, just from a description standpoint. To describe her as a survivor in a way so that we're all supposed.
00:21:28
Speaker 2: To feel sorry for her.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: Yes, what happened to her on September 30th was outrageous and horrific and should never happen again and changes need to be made.
00:21:37
Speaker 2: But to stand there and call her a survivor... for.
00:21:42
Speaker 3: All of what she has been through in her life, but especially what she went through on September 30th, I think that that could end up backfiring. And I think survivor is a word that is used for victims of, yes, sexual assault, which she was, but not who've gone on to commit heinous, violent crimes. Survivor is something that's used for people who make it through cancer. Cancer. and horrific, awful things, but not who then go on to brutalize and murder people. So I just, that word really bothered me.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: I wonder how many others it might bother. It wasn't just the word. It was how he was painting her as a hero. He was painting her as someone we are, should support, should sympathize with. He was, his whole tone in that whole time, exactly what you're talking about, because we had the same reaction to it. It just made you go, ugh. Don't do that. We can sympathize as human beings that another human shouldn't be treated that way. And that is what keeps us from having full sympathetic hearts when you call her a survivor because we remember what she did and not give that other girl the type of sympathy and mercy. Now, we are giving her. We are. We are. Right? Say it out loud. Hate what happened to Krista Pike. I hate it. But don't ask me to rally for her life. Don't ask me to rally for her sympathetically in some way. And again, I get it. I just... It was too much.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: It was too much.
00:23:22
Speaker 1: Right now, because the first thing you think about is Colleen Slimmer's mama. That's like an image of that woman came to my mind when he said that, like, ooh, that woman is not going to like that.
00:23:31
Speaker 3: And he followed up the survivor talk with how much suffering is enough. And look, I just think he and they can go too far and push too far too much, especially when a A mother is just beside herself and has spoken out publicly about how wronged she feels and how she'll never get justice for her daughter. So I just, that was my biggest, just, I hate to use the word ick factor, but I just, I just was like, okay, I understand trying to protect her rights. I understand trying to make sure this never happens again. And I understand even having some sympathy for what she's gone through, but don't take it too far. And make her some heroic survivor.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Don't take it too far may be the right way. That's the good advice.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:24:16
Speaker 1: Don't take it too far.
00:24:16
Speaker 3: But this is just the beginning. There is going to be a lot more to come on this. We'll see what happens with Krista Pike. We don't really know what her cognitive ability is right now, but she's speaking. And she does seem to have an idea of what she's been through and.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: What she's facing. I just think none of us know what happens next.
00:24:38
Speaker 1: There isn't. We don't have another hearing set.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: Right.
00:24:41
Speaker 1: So we don't know. Officially, there's not a next move. But we're waiting for word from the governor, waiting for the from word for Tennessee, what they're going to do next, what the plan is. Obviously, she's not going to be executed this year.
00:24:52
Speaker 2: No.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: But what happens to her now? Are they going to officially commute her sentence, officially do it? And she's going to go back to prison for the rest of her life? Can she? What shape is she in? Robes, you go from brain dead to. Everything is all good. No, that doesn't happen. I'd like to hear a better explanation. We know that, Rose, right? Yes.
00:25:12
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:25:12
Speaker 1: That would absolutely be an absolute medical, not even a medical miracle, but a miracle.
00:25:16
Speaker 2: Doctors can usually tell if there is brain activity.
00:25:19
Speaker 3: So look, we're all getting this second and third hand because of privacy with patients and all of that. And the attorneys are only dealing with information as it's made available to them.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: So hopefully some of that will also be cleared up.
00:25:33
Speaker 3: Of course, we'll stay on top of the story, but we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, October 7th. She survived. She's alive. She's awake. She's talking. And Krista Pike is also now winning. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Ropes. We just finished watching an emergency court hearing related to Krista Pike. And I say winning because she just picked up a legal victory. But it made clear, Robes, this is just the beginning of what's going to be a hell of a process.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:00:30
Speaker 3: So a judge did rule in favor of Krista Pike's attorneys demanding that the state of Tennessee, the Department of Corrections, preserve all evidence, including stuff that was thrown in the trash bin. in case and to preserve, they want to move forward with any sort of cruel and unusual punishment claims, whatever it may be, they will use this information for, whether it be for future executions or for litigation coming from Krista Pike herself. The judge ordered the state of Tennessee to preserve it all.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: So that was, uh, yes, a big win. It was interesting. We'll get into some of the legal back and forth that took place. That was very, it was really interesting in court and the judge, um, Clearly had questions for the state. We'll get into that. But also, Rose, another big note, a big nugget. The attorneys did a press conference afterwards. And I guess of most note is how Krista Pike is doing right now. Now, this was interesting to hear, and this is the information we've been chomping at the bit to get.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: Yes, we got a lot of details about what happened. And probably the most shocking thing we heard was her attorney told a gaggle of reporters that they believed on Monday night that Krista Pike was brain dead. There have been relatives of Krista Pike's who have also spoken to local media saying they too were told that. that Krista was brain dead or believed to be brain dead. And the plan had been on Tuesday at some point to take her off life support and to let her die. And apparently Krista Pike shocked everyone.
00:02:10
Speaker 2: By waking up and saying, where am I and who are you?
00:02:15
Speaker 1: Rose, this is going into mythology now. This is now something... Else, we get the details later from a medical professional of exactly what is going on, what happened, was this some kind of medical miracle? You're telling us she's brain dead? No, doctors know, baby, if you've got brain activity or not, you're going to wake up. This kind of goes to a lot of the point of what the attorneys were making. Everything's so vague, and it's so general, and it's so secretive. And I understand, Rope, she is still a ward of the state. She is still... In their eyes, a violent criminal who is a threat to any and everybody around her. And they're treating her as such. Now, I understand her attorney's making an argument that she shouldn't be treated exactly like that, given what you all did to her. But this was some of the back and forth going on. But that detail, and also some of the stuff makes sense. Her condition, her being shackled to the bed, it came up quite a bit. And then the condition, they were describing her arms in a pretty grotesque way. to a certain degree.
00:03:14
Speaker 2: They did.
00:03:15
Speaker 3: They said that right now she can't move either arm and that the way he described the way her hands looked, because they have been able to see her, he said if you blow up a surgical glove, that's what her hand looks like. They said she can't move either arm. She says she cannot eat right now because she can't swallow. I think that's fairly typical after being intubated for that long and being on a ventilator, so that isn't that out of the ordinary.
00:03:40
Speaker 2: But they said we don't.
00:03:41
Speaker 3: Know what the toll will be, what the emotional toll, what the physical toll will be with what she went through, they were asked how she was doing. And the attorney said she asked about her team, first of all. She asked about the victim's family. They did say that in the press conference. And they described her demeanor as angry and confused. They say she doesn't remember everything. She remembers some things about the execution itself, But there is a lot that she does not remember.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: Robe, she went to sleep thinking she was never going to wake up. This was death. This was the end of her life. She woke up almost a week later. What could have been going through your mind, babe?
00:04:28
Speaker 3: You're supposed to be dead. Yeah, where am I and who are you? You might be thinking, am I in purgatory?
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Am I in hell?
00:04:34
Speaker 3: Am I... In heaven, am I in an afterlife somehow? But I'm sure pretty quickly she saw that her feet were shackled to the bed and her arm is shackled to the bed.
00:04:44
Speaker 2: Her lawyers, by the way, are trying to get... her arm unshackled.
00:04:48
Speaker 3: And they say, they're saying that the medical professionals are asking that that take place because of the condition of her arm. And so I think the judge was actually had a really good answer to that. She said, give me an affidavit from a member of her medical team who says they need her arm to be unshackled and then I'll make my ruling.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: I think that's fair.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: I think so, too.
00:05:20
Speaker 1: I know in all theory, Robes, she is not in any condition to get up, walk out, escape. I know that in theory, but if you're the warden in charge of that prisoner, that's not your job. Your job is not to be sympathetic. Your job is not to say, oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. So I get that to a certain degree why she's shackled to the bed.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: Yes, her feet would remain shackled. This would just be about having the other arm be free. There were also questions from her lawyers about accessibility, being able to actually reach her, have her be able to reach them as they're trying to get A tablet to her. So when you're a prisoner, even if you're in death row, you have a tablet and it's monitored by the Department of Corrections and you can only communicate with certain people. And it's and again, it's monitored. So she hasn't been able to reach out to her attorneys. Her attorneys expressed having difficulty communicating. seeing her, communicating with her. So they're trying, they had the judge try and step in and create a situation that would be similar to what she would have if she were behind bars. And the judge agreed, nothing should change in terms of her ability or accessibility to her lawyers just because she's in a hospital versus being behind bars. But clearly there are some security issues that have to be figured out. And that does, all of that makes a lot of sense.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: Okay, all that, That stuff made sense. Those are fair arguments. But this whole hearing, Robes, was supposed to be about, and it is, it was an emergency hearing put together. And you had attorneys for the state and you had her two attorneys in there as well. It was all supposed to be, Robes, about an emergency request for the state of Tennessee to preserve everything having to do with this execution. The state was pushing back on that. Their argument is, Well, of course, we're already doing it, so we don't need another order. We'll get into that in a second. But the first point of business, Robes, was jurisdiction. I was amazed how long it went back and forth. And it was a little confusing. You had to follow this case for a while, but you had jurisdiction. Them essentially arguing whether or not this court had jurisdiction to make a ruling of any kind. This is how complicated this case is. Listening to them, I'm like, oh, wow. Wait a minute. And then the state had come in previously and argued that this same court did not have jurisdiction on something. And then they're going back and forth. You want relief? for an event that's already happened instead of relief for the execution before it happened. All this stuff was, bro, this is going to be a mind-boggling, no one has ever dealt with this before type of case.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the judge said that. Basically, yeah, we're in uncharted territory. Truer words could never have been said. You could see these obviously experienced lawyers, an experienced judge, I think her name is Chancellor, but Aisha Miles of Davidson County Chancery Court Look, it was all done so, I was impressed with such complicated material and such unprecedented, uncharted territory, how they were all maneuvering.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: It was fascinating to watch.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: Because it seemed like all of them were treading a little carefully because they didn't know. Like no one's dealt with this. Robes, the arguments were fascinating to me. Does this court have jurisdiction? We sent it to another court. They dealt with it. But now it's back here. I thought I closed the case. She actually said that. I closed this case out. You want me to open something back up? Robes, this was fascinating to listen to. But the key, Robes, came down to another case. So whose side was arguing this? This was the prosecution or the state was arguing, Judge, you don't need to issue an order. for us to preserve this evidence. You don't have to do it because there's another case, a federal case that ain't got nothing to do with nothing in this court. A federal case already put the Tennessee Department of Corrections under a particular order that requires them to preserve everything having to do with an execution. He was saying, judge, we're already doing this. So no matter what order you issue, we're already doing the exact same thing. It's not gonna change anything we do. That was their argument. Judge didn't necessarily buy that.
00:09:43
Speaker 3: No, she said you still need to, and she thought it was important to absolutely make sure this evidence is preserved and that there's an order to do so.
00:09:54
Speaker 1: By her court. Correct.
00:09:57
Speaker 3: And yeah, she said she, you know, because they were already... saying, hey, look, we've already collected all the materials from the execution chamber. We've got the observation logs. We have the medical waste and the products, the EKG readouts. But they were also saying, but we might not have everything. The IV lines were cut and they may be at the hospital now. And so there was just, it was really interesting to think they were supposed to be photographing all of the, it was like, can we go in there and take stuff out? Do we have to leave things? Is it a crime scene kind of? I mean, that's what I was hearing when I was listening to them. It was almost as if they were treating people that death chamber as a crime scene with crime scene tape and nothing can be removed and nothing can be touched and everything must be preserved as evidence. And that's kind of what it seems like the judge ordered the Department of Corrections to do.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Ropes, she started going through a list of stuff. EKG, she said the trash in the trash can needs to be preserved. Everybody who was a part of this, every record they have, every email they sent. Roe, she went as far as saying, if anything I just explained was already accidentally deleted, you need to make a good faith effort to go recover it. Some kind of way. Roe, she wants everything. She mentioned Signal. She mentioned encrypted apps. She mentioned, I want everything saved. You talk to the governor. Yeah, I want that saved too.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: I mean, that makes sense, though.
00:11:29
Speaker 3: And look, to that point, Krista Pike's attorneys, when they began their press conference, they said, yes, obviously they want all the evidence preserved for potential future litigation. But more importantly, they claim this hearing today, this emergency hearing, was about transparency. And look, I think that's in everyone's best interest. That's in the state's best interest. That's in the Department of Correction's best interest. And in the American public's best interest. And certainly, obviously, in Krista Pike's.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: Did the public know who was in that room with her?
00:11:59
Speaker 2: I do think so.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:12:01
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know of names because, look, people who are passionately opposed to the death penalty, and if you're a licensed medical professional, you might lose business. You might lose credibility. You might suffer professionally if your clients, your patients, people who do business with you vehemently oppose the death penalty and then... come to learn that you're participating in a process, they abhor. So I do understand the identity of the personnel inside might need to be private.
00:12:36
Speaker 1: Wasn't that historically, right? Public executions, the executioner bore a hood, did they not?
00:12:42
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And look, executions are in this country. generally cloaked in secrecy.
00:12:49
Speaker 3: I think that just kind of like grand juries, for obvious reasons, operate in secrecy. So do executions and executioners. And especially when it comes to how each state gets these drugs, just any details surrounding where they come from, their origins, and yes, who administers them. That's important for people to prevents any sort of backlash for participating in a legal procedure. But if people find out who takes part in it, given all of the emotional feelings people have attached to this, yeah, it gets tricky.
00:13:30
Speaker 1: Isn't that a shame? That's what they do. And they find you do anything they don't like. They start going after you. And what's the thing they call it when they put the negative reviews on your business? Oh, yeah. What's that called? There's a word for it.
00:13:41
Speaker 2: I forgot. When they give you like zero stars.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: Exactly.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:13:44
Speaker 3: But this would be something where, yes, businesses could be hurt. Companies could be hurt. Pharmaceutical companies could be hurt. Medical professionals could be hurt. So yes, this is going to be a delicate dance when you're trying to get information about where these drugs came from, how they were stored, who administered them. And look, a lot of times these injections are administered by people who have limited medical training or certainly limited experience in in putting in an IV because as we've talked about in previous podcasts, a lot of, and I would probably say it's fair to make the statement that most medical professionals, most doctors would not want to participate for ethical reasons.
00:14:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just, I don't, again, I don't know how it goes. It's cloaked in secrecy to a certain degree, but there's gotta be, right? It's like a trained group. that can travel to these, that knows how to do this. You mentioned this, and yes, probes, for your cancer, you spend a lot of time in a lot of hospitals getting a lot of needles poked in you. But I'm so sure you could go over there to the hospital crosstown here in Manhattan and pick out five people that you probably know personally who could get that line in the first time.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Right, but would they be willing to... to take that expertise.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: No, no, no. What I'm saying is not they shouldn't be forced or even asked. What I'm saying is it's possible to train someone who knows how to do this. Now, is that a matter of you having to do it over and over and over for years and this is just your job in a hospital? Do you have to get that good? I don't know. Or do you just have to train? Do you have to have recurrent training? Do you have to have ropes? There should be a unit of execution needle experts. That when there's an execute, we don't have that many in the country every year, Robes. We're up to 30 this year. Robes, pick somebody from this expert group who is not, who is certified, who is not going to let this ever happen. If you can't do that, get rid of the lethal injection. Get rid of it.
00:15:53
Speaker 2: I think most people would agree with you.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: Get rid of lethal injection. It's supposed to be the humane one that makes us all feel better.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: It makes us feel better.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: It certainly doesn't seem to be making the inmates feel better as they die or almost die. But when we come back, we're going to hear what the state had to say about whether or not they plan to go forward with another execution for Krista Pike.
00:16:27
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: We just watched a fascinating court hearing and a press conference following all about Krista Pike, her current condition, and what the state of Tennessee now must do as her lawyers and her decide the next steps for them legally from a litigation standpoint. But bottom line, the judge ruled in favor of Krista Pike's attorney ordering the state to preserve everything from the trash bins to the surveillance footage to the call logs to emails to accidentally deleted emails to anything and everything possibly associated with that September 30th execution before, during, and after.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: Before they say medical waste and they went to like biological waste. They want everything.
00:17:16
Speaker 3: She ticked off every box possible.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: She did. And then some. She gave them more than they got sorts of.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: She made a very large umbrella of things.
00:17:23
Speaker 3: That the state must operate under, but also under questioning from the judge, we heard directly from the state and they asked, she would, they were asked specifically about whether or not the state plans to pursue executing Krista Pike. Again, his answer was, I cannot say there is no current order basically right now. And so that's how they couched it. But it's interesting because yes, midterm elections. are what, how many weeks away now? And you have a Democrat and a Republican up for governor and they have very different views and they are already weighing in on this Krista Pike controversy.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Not surprising. We heard pretty quickly from Marsha Blackburn about.
00:18:10
Speaker 3: Her desire to continue executions in her state and her desire to explore any and all options So that these types of executions can continue.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: Maybe not by lethal injection. Maybe by, say, an electric chair.
00:18:27
Speaker 1: If you tell America that, how's America going to feel about that? We're getting rid of everything. We're just going to electrocute. We're going to bring the chair back.
00:18:34
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness.
00:18:34
Speaker 3: I would imagine you would get a passionate response.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: A different response, right?
00:18:40
Speaker 2: For or against, depending on who you ask. That's right.
00:18:42
Speaker 3: And Jerry Green, the Democrat running for governor right now, he sorry, Green has stated that she would extend the current pause that we've seen Bill Lee put into place following the Krista Pike. So he's said there are no more executions in the state of Tennessee for the rest of the year. while we await the results of an independent investigation into what went wrong. But she is saying that she would continue that pause or moratorium, however you want to put it, and have death row inmates like Krista Pike serve out a life sentence instead. So very different reactions to the same situation. And look, that'll be something that the voters of Tennessee will get to decide, knowing at least where each candidate, both women, by the way, so interesting, where they stand. This has got to be the biggest story coming out of Tennessee leading into the midterm elections.
00:19:39
Speaker 1: Biggest story in the country right now.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: It really is.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: To a great degree. So it's all they're buzzing about there in Tennessee. How does that state feel about the death penalty? How does that state, who is that state going to hold responsible? for what happened? You have an outgoing governor, so can't hold it against him. It's a Republican state. It's a Republican-leaning state. It's a conservative state. In many areas, it's a rural state. I mean, what does the latest polling tell us about how the people of Tennessee feel about this? No matter how the people of Tennessee feel, baby, They're good folks. They're decent folks. And there's nobody who is in favor of what happened to her. It doesn't matter. We all know, just generally speaking, there may be somebody out there, and you might have it in the back of your mind, well, she got what she deserved after what she did to that girl in 95.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and to that point, I was wondering how people... emotionally reacted to Krista Pike's lawyer. He's made statements like this before, but to hear him stand in front of these microphones, in front of these reporters and say, Krista is a survivor, that hit me all the wrong ways. I don't know how much he or they should lean into that because that's the danger here. Look, no one wants, I don't believe any decent human being wants anyone wants any other human being to suffer, generally speaking. Even if they did horrible things, yes, you might want them to die. Yes, of course, you want them to pay for their crimes.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: But to paint someone who.
00:21:18
Speaker 3: Was convicted of one of the most evil crimes I have ever read, just from a description standpoint. To describe her as a survivor in a way so that we're all supposed.
00:21:28
Speaker 2: To feel sorry for her.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: Yes, what happened to her on September 30th was outrageous and horrific and should never happen again and changes need to be made.
00:21:37
Speaker 2: But to stand there and call her a survivor... for.
00:21:42
Speaker 3: All of what she has been through in her life, but especially what she went through on September 30th, I think that that could end up backfiring. And I think survivor is a word that is used for victims of, yes, sexual assault, which she was, but not who've gone on to commit heinous, violent crimes. Survivor is something that's used for people who make it through cancer. Cancer. and horrific, awful things, but not who then go on to brutalize and murder people. So I just, that word really bothered me.
00:22:19
Speaker 1: I wonder how many others it might bother. It wasn't just the word. It was how he was painting her as a hero. He was painting her as someone we are, should support, should sympathize with. He was, his whole tone in that whole time, exactly what you're talking about, because we had the same reaction to it. It just made you go, ugh. Don't do that. We can sympathize as human beings that another human shouldn't be treated that way. And that is what keeps us from having full sympathetic hearts when you call her a survivor because we remember what she did and not give that other girl the type of sympathy and mercy. Now, we are giving her. We are. We are. Right? Say it out loud. Hate what happened to Krista Pike. I hate it. But don't ask me to rally for her life. Don't ask me to rally for her sympathetically in some way. And again, I get it. I just... It was too much.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: It was too much.
00:23:22
Speaker 1: Right now, because the first thing you think about is Colleen Slimmer's mama. That's like an image of that woman came to my mind when he said that, like, ooh, that woman is not going to like that.
00:23:31
Speaker 3: And he followed up the survivor talk with how much suffering is enough. And look, I just think he and they can go too far and push too far too much, especially when a A mother is just beside herself and has spoken out publicly about how wronged she feels and how she'll never get justice for her daughter. So I just, that was my biggest, just, I hate to use the word ick factor, but I just, I just was like, okay, I understand trying to protect her rights. I understand trying to make sure this never happens again. And I understand even having some sympathy for what she's gone through, but don't take it too far. And make her some heroic survivor.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Don't take it too far may be the right way. That's the good advice.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:24:16
Speaker 1: Don't take it too far.
00:24:16
Speaker 3: But this is just the beginning. There is going to be a lot more to come on this. We'll see what happens with Krista Pike. We don't really know what her cognitive ability is right now, but she's speaking. And she does seem to have an idea of what she's been through and.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: What she's facing. I just think none of us know what happens next.
00:24:38
Speaker 1: There isn't. We don't have another hearing set.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: Right.
00:24:41
Speaker 1: So we don't know. Officially, there's not a next move. But we're waiting for word from the governor, waiting for the from word for Tennessee, what they're going to do next, what the plan is. Obviously, she's not going to be executed this year.
00:24:52
Speaker 2: No.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: But what happens to her now? Are they going to officially commute her sentence, officially do it? And she's going to go back to prison for the rest of her life? Can she? What shape is she in? Robes, you go from brain dead to. Everything is all good. No, that doesn't happen. I'd like to hear a better explanation. We know that, Rose, right? Yes.
00:25:12
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:25:12
Speaker 1: That would absolutely be an absolute medical, not even a medical miracle, but a miracle.
00:25:16
Speaker 2: Doctors can usually tell if there is brain activity.
00:25:19
Speaker 3: So look, we're all getting this second and third hand because of privacy with patients and all of that. And the attorneys are only dealing with information as it's made available to them.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: So hopefully some of that will also be cleared up.
00:25:33
Speaker 3: Of course, we'll stay on top of the story, but we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.