Oct. 2, 2026
Christa Pike In Critical Condition As Colleen Slemmer’s Mom Reacts: “We Can’t Get Justice For My Daughter”
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RSS Feed 50-year-old Christa Pike remains in the hospital, in critical condition this morning. Pike’s attorneys say she was chemically tortured, suggesting the drugs went into her arm tissue rather than her bloodstream. They also have expressed frustration that they haven't been given any sense of her prognosis, but if Pike survives, it will be unprecedented. Meantime, her victim’s mother, May Martinez is speaking out, frustrated by the botched execution.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 2nd, and Krista Pike is still alive. Two days after her execution. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where a historic story has now become even more historic for different reasons. Robes, we are now dealing with something that we just have not seen before. A death row inmate surviving.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: A Yes, this is unprecedented in modern times. And yes, there is a scramble now to figure out what happened, how it happened, and what's next for Krista Pike because we know she's currently in critical condition. We've been told by her attorneys that she's receiving life-saving care, which for me is very confusing. I understand we have certain protocols in place, but you try to kill her not once but twice, and now you're trying to save her life so you can try and kill her again.
00:01:01
Speaker 3: It doesn't make a lot of sense. It just doesn't. And her lawyers are saying she's been chemically tortured.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: At this point still, Robes, we don't know her condition. They tell us critical, but Robes, after what she went through, what these drugs do and what they do to the body, we don't know what type of long-term damage she could possibly have. I also haven't seen anyone say, yes, when you hear critical, we have a general idea of what that means. Is she stabilized to the point that she's out of the woods? Or could this still, we get news in the day or hours, Robes, that this has taken a turn? So, Robes, right now we're at a standstill to see what happens next, yes, with this case. But, Robes, what happens to the death penalty in Tennessee? With lethal injection around the country and the future. Robes, this is a phenomenal story.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: This may end up being a bellwether moment in death penalty cases throughout our country.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: And it's obviously already controversial.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: 23 states have abolished the death penalty in this country.
00:02:08
Speaker 3: And most of the modern world has as well.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: And Robes. I have never heard a better argument for getting rid of the death penalty than this. We are not in this political debate. But how can you not look at this and say something is wrong, this can never, ever happen again, and if the only way to keep it from happening is getting rid of the death penalty, then damn it, we've got to be better than this. Exactly.
00:02:34
Speaker 3: I mean, when you hear what.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Look, and her attorneys have said they don't have a full sense of her prognosis, that they haven't been given access... to what's happening with her, what her current status is. It's all veiled in a cloak of secrecy, like much of the process is. Where did the drugs come from? Who administered the drugs? All of this is done behind closed doors, truly. They say that they know this from watching her and from at least what they were able to witness and see during the two failed attempts. that her arm, when we heard this, we've talked about it, she said her arm felt like it was about to explode. So her lawyers are suggesting they believe the drugs were improperly administered and went into her arm tissue rather than her bloodstream. If it went into her bloodstream, the idea is that it would eventually have stopped her heart. But if it went into her arm tissue, that's a whole other situation.
00:03:27
Speaker 1: And it goes in line with what other, yes, her lawyers are saying that, but medical experts are saying that is the likely scenario and it makes sense given what was said. If it's going into the wrong place, if it's going into that tissue, yes, it would result in some extreme burning the way she described. So, Robes, this is fascinating that people hear it like she's some super lady and she can't, like this is some freakish thing. It just happens to be this historic case this happens on. But, Robes, this looks like operator error. This looks like a human being, not the drugs, in some way, messed this up.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:04:04
Speaker 2: And look, the other issue is Tennessee, which is distinguished from some of the other states who administer lethal injections. They just use one drug as opposed to three. So people have pointed that out as well. And there are a lot of changes that would need to be made. Obviously, we know Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for the rest of the year, and he's asked a third party to investigate what went wrong. He, along with pretty much every other state official, even those who are for the death penalty, have had to acknowledge publicly that this cannot ever happen again.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Period.
00:04:41
Speaker 1: I don't care if you, that doesn't matter how desperately you want this woman to die and pay for what she did and justice need to be sought. It's hard to find someone who thinks this is okay. Even if you want this woman to die, it's how can we say no? Oh, well, just put it through it again. This is okay. All right, it got messed up. Now there is a sense of decency robes in this thing, the way she has been done. And we don't know her condition. She might be permanently.
00:05:21
Speaker 2: Brain damage is what some doctors, they've had a lot of people weigh in to just see what the outcome may be. And they say even if she does survive, that she may likely, very likely may have brain damage, permanent brain damage.
00:05:34
Speaker 3: We don't know.
00:05:35
Speaker 2: And there's, I don't you think it's concerning, deeply concerning that the state of Tennessee or anyone who is overseeing her condition has not been transparent whatsoever. We have no idea, including her lawyers, what condition she's in other than critical brain There's been no explanation, no detail, nothing. And I do think that as a nation, we deserve that. We deserve to know what's happened to a woman who our country and the state of Tennessee, our government tried to execute.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: And we screwed it up. I didn't think about that aspect of it. I don't know what. but laws about releasing medical records and all that. I don't know how that applies here. But, Robes, you are 100% right. There should be somebody out front, standing there in front of a microphone, answering whatever question to the point that you can. But nobody's taking this, Robes, taking this on as the big deal that it is. There's just sides arguing and people mad about this, people mad about the death penalty, mad about... And her family, which certainly should be the focus right now, Robes, it's no one. You're right, babe. This goes well beyond a family and a state and a legislature. Robes, this has serious implications for every citizen in this country.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: It absolutely does.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: And look, here is part of the problem. And it makes sense when you think about this. It's difficult to find a qualified medical professional who is willing to participate in a state execution. Think about it. Doctors take that Hippocratic oath. They take an oath to do no harm. So why would a doctor want to participate in an execution?
00:07:22
Speaker 3: And listen to this. This is interesting.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: Remember that other failed? Well, the problem they had in May with Tony Carruthers, Dr. Mark Fowler was the doctor who was inserting the IV.
00:07:34
Speaker 3: He was unsuccessful in placing that central.
00:07:36
Speaker 2: Line that they needed and And then it turns out he hadn't done one in 13 years. He did not have current hospital privileges. And he had maybe done a dozen central lines throughout the totality of his career. So this is somebody who was out of practice. He said he had done about a dozen in his entire career, but he hadn't inserted a central line, an IV, in 13 years. That's who they're trying to figure out to put in these death chambers.
00:08:06
Speaker 3: They don't have... qualified or at least.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Just practiced, well-practiced physicians or healthcare professionals who know how to properly insert these lines, which can lead to what we saw happen. We don't know what happened, but that is certainly a possibility and maybe even a probability that that could have been what occurred.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: They make Uber drivers get particular licenses and Robes, everybody is regulated in some way to make sure you can do the job that you're going to be doing before we allow you to do it. I don't want to hear this about quality. We can't find qualified people. You only carry out one or two executions a year. You've got 12 months to go recruit, to find, to train whoever needs to do this, baby. That's not it. Nope, we can't find enough people. It's a big state, and you've got plenty of time to go advertise. Hey, would you like to participate in justice? Sign up now. Only one night of work. What? Okay.
00:09:07
Speaker 3: But think about it.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: If you are a trained physician, why would you want to participate in killing someone?
00:09:13
Speaker 3: I mean, that is a very difficult thing.
00:09:15
Speaker 1: Fine. Then you go find the people and you recruit a specific crop of people who all they do is this thing. Who sign up to do this thing. If you can't figure out, get a doctor to come in and train whatever person. corrections officer you have, have a special crop. They can handle this. They're not doing executions like in Florida, like there's one every two weeks. We can't find somebody for the next one. No, you're doing one a year. You got 12 months to find somebody who can put a damn needle in somebody's arm.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: I think the problem is when you only do one a year, you don't have the people in place. It's also, by the way, difficult to obtain the drugs that are needed. It's unclear where they got this drug from. Many pharmaceutical companies refuse to allow this drugs to be used in executions for moral reasons. You have European law forbidding any pharmaceutical company that operates in Europe. They are not allowed to sell drugs to be used in executions. So there has been talk that where do they get this drug from? Who manufactured it? They oftentimes use small companies like And it might not be as powerful or as potent or as regulated as you might expect. And so you've got issues with the types of drugs being used, which companies are making them, who's administering these drugs. It's all potentially leading to what we saw happen in Tennessee this week.
00:10:35
Speaker 1: Okay, so everything you're, I know you mentioned the companies, the drug companies. Rose, Tennessee's problem hasn't been the drugs. It's been the human beings who are administering it. Carruthers can't find a vein. That's human error. That has nothing to do with the drug. This situation, it looks like the drugs didn't properly get into her system. That is human error. State of Tennessee, once again, had to delay for years an execution of somebody in 2025.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: Why?
00:11:03
Speaker 1: Because they didn't look at the goddamn expiration dates on the pentobarbital, and it wasn't tested properly. But, gross, that's all human stuff. So we could talk about drugs all day. Where are they coming from? What are the... Robes, they're not getting into the arm properly in the first place. So botched executions, how many have we seen, Robes? And I know they have numbers on them and whatnot.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: I have the numbers.
00:11:23
Speaker 1: But how many do they put on failed drugs? These drugs are not effective.
00:11:29
Speaker 2: Here's what I was able to find out from the Death Penalty Info Center. The Death Penalty Information Center is actually a really incredible site that has a lot of really interesting facts. But since 1982... there have been at least 64 botched executions. 51 of them were lethal injections. And seven of those occurred because officials could not properly insert IV lines.
00:11:54
Speaker 3: Those are the numbers.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: And the numbers they put on, it's kind of jarring. We should only have one method of execution in this country. Because on that list you have, Rose, it shows you how many have been botched and the percentages that are botched. There's one method of execution that has zero botched executions.
00:12:17
Speaker 3: Firing squad?
00:12:18
Speaker 1: Firing squad. Zero. None of them botched. It's the only one on the list that didn't have something.
00:12:26
Speaker 3: It's true.
00:12:27
Speaker 2: There was even one other case. They say there was one other case from 1946. Florida teenager Willie Francis survived being electrocuted in the electric chair. He was just 17 years old. Next year at 18, tried it again. This time it worked. But yeah, even the electric chair. has proven to be, I guess, something that isn't reliable.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: That's a damn shame. That's horrific. They made him do that twice. That is horrific.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: I read that and my skin just crawled. It is awful.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Yes, if we're going to have state-sanctioned executions, then we at least better do them correctly and effectively the first time around.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: Not only is.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Krista Pike suffering right now, But so is Colleen Slemmer's mom and her family.
00:13:13
Speaker 3: That is the victim of Krista Pike.
00:13:14
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to tell you what Colleen Slemmer's mom had to say about what happened in Tennessee.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are hearing.
00:13:32
Speaker 2: Now from Krista Pike's victim's mom, Colleen Slemmer, we've talked about this. She and her husband, this is May Martinez and her husband Raul, they drove 11 hours from Florida to Tennessee. They walked into that death chamber not once but twice. And they watched as Krista Pike was given what they thought was going to be two separate lethal.
00:13:57
Speaker 3: Dosages of pentobarbital.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Should have been one. One should have worked.
00:14:02
Speaker 2: This is what May Martinez had to say. She said, I stood in front of that window and I watched her very, very carefully.
00:14:09
Speaker 3: I did not take my eyes off of her.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: I wanted her to remember who Colleen was and what they've done and never forget that thought no matter where she goes. So she's sitting there and she's thinking these things and she's waiting and she's waiting and she's waiting. And then all of a sudden they're taken into the next room where they waited for more than an hour to talk to someone about what had happened.
00:14:29
Speaker 3: Can you imagine that? They have no idea what's going on.
00:14:33
Speaker 1: The part I can't imagine, Robes, and we haven't said it enough or really in this episode, but we have recalled, Robes, this girl had her throat slashed, had her body mutilated. She was beaten. She was kicked. She was mocked as she was tortured and killed over a half hour by this woman and her boyfriend at the time. That was 30 years ago, Robes. So this woman, her mom is standing there, only a window separating her from the woman who killed her daughter in that way 30 years ago. She's finally, this moment, she's staring. I've been waiting for this for 30 years for my daughter. Let's do it. Robes, that is.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: It's outrageous.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: I hope the governor called. I hope everybody is apologizing to this lady.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: They need to be, because apology is something she has talked about as well. She said that Krista Pike has never once apologized to her or apologized in any way for taking her daughter's life.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: And you know what?
00:15:41
Speaker 2: Krista's final words did not include an apology. In fact, I thought it was kind of strange. Her final words, to remind you, I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love. I feel like that's really kind of almost spitting in the face of the mother.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: Of Colleen Slummer.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: To say you've lived your life in love when you tortured her daughter. You don't take the moment in your final words to apologize to this woman.
00:16:09
Speaker 3: I thought that was pretty awful.
00:16:12
Speaker 1: You know, we always are, babe, surprised by final words. But what's to be expected? Those were supposed to be her final words. Will they end up being? We do not know.
00:16:22
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
00:16:23
Speaker 1: But Rose, it was an odd thing to say. I don't know where she is in her life, and she doesn't. Oh, this family necessarily in her mind, anything. Wow. But man, to go out like that.
00:16:37
Speaker 2: I've lived my life the way I'm going to die the way I've lived most of my life in love.
00:16:41
Speaker 1: So I do imagine what happened to Colleen Slimmer's mom's heart. Oh, what happened to her physically to hear that? I bet she reacted.
00:16:50
Speaker 3: That would have fired. Oh, it would have. It was like almost a final shot across the bow.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: And fucking kidding me, lady. Yeah. She probably wanted to bang through that glass in that moment.
00:17:01
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:17:01
Speaker 2: And she said, this was her quote, she has no remorse. She's never had any remorse in 31 years. And now we can't get justice for my daughter.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: It's done. She won't get justice. Isn't that something? That's what y'all told her justice was, the death penalty. And now you're telling her 30 years later, that's not justice anymore. You're going to have to settle for this other thing.
00:17:24
Speaker 3: We don't even know what the other thing is.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: Just a commutation of her ascendant?
00:17:28
Speaker 3: If she survives, could she be in a vegetative state? Is she in a coma? We have no idea what state Krista Pike is in right now.
00:17:37
Speaker 1: The way this is going to go now in courts, does she have a suit against the state now for what they have done to her? Are her lawyers going to go that route? What rally? Who's going to rally and march to kill this lady again? Who's going to march down the street? Yes, put her to death. This woman that we tortured. We tortured her back. Got her back for what she did to Colleen Slimmer all those years ago. This was torture.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Oh, I don't think anyone would disagree with that in any way, shape, or form. And look, it's... it's torture, and I don't know if it leads to change. I think that might be the only hope that could be the silver lining, that we make sure this never happens again, and if that means abolishing the death penalty, so be it.
00:18:28
Speaker 1: I don't know. To try it again, would you ever trust Tennessee to carry out another execution in five years? Come on, y'all, back to back. What are you doing, Tennessee? Come on. I mean, I'm sure they're well-meaning people. But, babe, this is one of those things you cannot have mistakes on. This is one you have to get right every single time, period.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: And they knew the world was watching. That's the thing. They knew what a big deal this was.
00:18:52
Speaker 2: The first time this state was going to execute a woman in more than 200 years. This has been a story for years. And certainly in the weeks leading up to this day, everyone was watching and they knew it.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: And they still... F'd it up.
00:19:09
Speaker 2: Well, we will continue to monitor what's going on there and what's happening with Krista Pike and certainly with the Slemmer family. But we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:19:20
Speaker 3: We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 2nd, and Krista Pike is still alive. Two days after her execution. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where a historic story has now become even more historic for different reasons. Robes, we are now dealing with something that we just have not seen before. A death row inmate surviving.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: A Yes, this is unprecedented in modern times. And yes, there is a scramble now to figure out what happened, how it happened, and what's next for Krista Pike because we know she's currently in critical condition. We've been told by her attorneys that she's receiving life-saving care, which for me is very confusing. I understand we have certain protocols in place, but you try to kill her not once but twice, and now you're trying to save her life so you can try and kill her again.
00:01:01
Speaker 3: It doesn't make a lot of sense. It just doesn't. And her lawyers are saying she's been chemically tortured.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: At this point still, Robes, we don't know her condition. They tell us critical, but Robes, after what she went through, what these drugs do and what they do to the body, we don't know what type of long-term damage she could possibly have. I also haven't seen anyone say, yes, when you hear critical, we have a general idea of what that means. Is she stabilized to the point that she's out of the woods? Or could this still, we get news in the day or hours, Robes, that this has taken a turn? So, Robes, right now we're at a standstill to see what happens next, yes, with this case. But, Robes, what happens to the death penalty in Tennessee? With lethal injection around the country and the future. Robes, this is a phenomenal story.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: This may end up being a bellwether moment in death penalty cases throughout our country.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: And it's obviously already controversial.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: 23 states have abolished the death penalty in this country.
00:02:08
Speaker 3: And most of the modern world has as well.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: And Robes. I have never heard a better argument for getting rid of the death penalty than this. We are not in this political debate. But how can you not look at this and say something is wrong, this can never, ever happen again, and if the only way to keep it from happening is getting rid of the death penalty, then damn it, we've got to be better than this. Exactly.
00:02:34
Speaker 3: I mean, when you hear what.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Look, and her attorneys have said they don't have a full sense of her prognosis, that they haven't been given access... to what's happening with her, what her current status is. It's all veiled in a cloak of secrecy, like much of the process is. Where did the drugs come from? Who administered the drugs? All of this is done behind closed doors, truly. They say that they know this from watching her and from at least what they were able to witness and see during the two failed attempts. that her arm, when we heard this, we've talked about it, she said her arm felt like it was about to explode. So her lawyers are suggesting they believe the drugs were improperly administered and went into her arm tissue rather than her bloodstream. If it went into her bloodstream, the idea is that it would eventually have stopped her heart. But if it went into her arm tissue, that's a whole other situation.
00:03:27
Speaker 1: And it goes in line with what other, yes, her lawyers are saying that, but medical experts are saying that is the likely scenario and it makes sense given what was said. If it's going into the wrong place, if it's going into that tissue, yes, it would result in some extreme burning the way she described. So, Robes, this is fascinating that people hear it like she's some super lady and she can't, like this is some freakish thing. It just happens to be this historic case this happens on. But, Robes, this looks like operator error. This looks like a human being, not the drugs, in some way, messed this up.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:04:04
Speaker 2: And look, the other issue is Tennessee, which is distinguished from some of the other states who administer lethal injections. They just use one drug as opposed to three. So people have pointed that out as well. And there are a lot of changes that would need to be made. Obviously, we know Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for the rest of the year, and he's asked a third party to investigate what went wrong. He, along with pretty much every other state official, even those who are for the death penalty, have had to acknowledge publicly that this cannot ever happen again.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Period.
00:04:41
Speaker 1: I don't care if you, that doesn't matter how desperately you want this woman to die and pay for what she did and justice need to be sought. It's hard to find someone who thinks this is okay. Even if you want this woman to die, it's how can we say no? Oh, well, just put it through it again. This is okay. All right, it got messed up. Now there is a sense of decency robes in this thing, the way she has been done. And we don't know her condition. She might be permanently.
00:05:21
Speaker 2: Brain damage is what some doctors, they've had a lot of people weigh in to just see what the outcome may be. And they say even if she does survive, that she may likely, very likely may have brain damage, permanent brain damage.
00:05:34
Speaker 3: We don't know.
00:05:35
Speaker 2: And there's, I don't you think it's concerning, deeply concerning that the state of Tennessee or anyone who is overseeing her condition has not been transparent whatsoever. We have no idea, including her lawyers, what condition she's in other than critical brain There's been no explanation, no detail, nothing. And I do think that as a nation, we deserve that. We deserve to know what's happened to a woman who our country and the state of Tennessee, our government tried to execute.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: And we screwed it up. I didn't think about that aspect of it. I don't know what. but laws about releasing medical records and all that. I don't know how that applies here. But, Robes, you are 100% right. There should be somebody out front, standing there in front of a microphone, answering whatever question to the point that you can. But nobody's taking this, Robes, taking this on as the big deal that it is. There's just sides arguing and people mad about this, people mad about the death penalty, mad about... And her family, which certainly should be the focus right now, Robes, it's no one. You're right, babe. This goes well beyond a family and a state and a legislature. Robes, this has serious implications for every citizen in this country.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: It absolutely does.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: And look, here is part of the problem. And it makes sense when you think about this. It's difficult to find a qualified medical professional who is willing to participate in a state execution. Think about it. Doctors take that Hippocratic oath. They take an oath to do no harm. So why would a doctor want to participate in an execution?
00:07:22
Speaker 3: And listen to this. This is interesting.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: Remember that other failed? Well, the problem they had in May with Tony Carruthers, Dr. Mark Fowler was the doctor who was inserting the IV.
00:07:34
Speaker 3: He was unsuccessful in placing that central.
00:07:36
Speaker 2: Line that they needed and And then it turns out he hadn't done one in 13 years. He did not have current hospital privileges. And he had maybe done a dozen central lines throughout the totality of his career. So this is somebody who was out of practice. He said he had done about a dozen in his entire career, but he hadn't inserted a central line, an IV, in 13 years. That's who they're trying to figure out to put in these death chambers.
00:08:06
Speaker 3: They don't have... qualified or at least.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Just practiced, well-practiced physicians or healthcare professionals who know how to properly insert these lines, which can lead to what we saw happen. We don't know what happened, but that is certainly a possibility and maybe even a probability that that could have been what occurred.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: They make Uber drivers get particular licenses and Robes, everybody is regulated in some way to make sure you can do the job that you're going to be doing before we allow you to do it. I don't want to hear this about quality. We can't find qualified people. You only carry out one or two executions a year. You've got 12 months to go recruit, to find, to train whoever needs to do this, baby. That's not it. Nope, we can't find enough people. It's a big state, and you've got plenty of time to go advertise. Hey, would you like to participate in justice? Sign up now. Only one night of work. What? Okay.
00:09:07
Speaker 3: But think about it.
00:09:08
Speaker 2: If you are a trained physician, why would you want to participate in killing someone?
00:09:13
Speaker 3: I mean, that is a very difficult thing.
00:09:15
Speaker 1: Fine. Then you go find the people and you recruit a specific crop of people who all they do is this thing. Who sign up to do this thing. If you can't figure out, get a doctor to come in and train whatever person. corrections officer you have, have a special crop. They can handle this. They're not doing executions like in Florida, like there's one every two weeks. We can't find somebody for the next one. No, you're doing one a year. You got 12 months to find somebody who can put a damn needle in somebody's arm.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: I think the problem is when you only do one a year, you don't have the people in place. It's also, by the way, difficult to obtain the drugs that are needed. It's unclear where they got this drug from. Many pharmaceutical companies refuse to allow this drugs to be used in executions for moral reasons. You have European law forbidding any pharmaceutical company that operates in Europe. They are not allowed to sell drugs to be used in executions. So there has been talk that where do they get this drug from? Who manufactured it? They oftentimes use small companies like And it might not be as powerful or as potent or as regulated as you might expect. And so you've got issues with the types of drugs being used, which companies are making them, who's administering these drugs. It's all potentially leading to what we saw happen in Tennessee this week.
00:10:35
Speaker 1: Okay, so everything you're, I know you mentioned the companies, the drug companies. Rose, Tennessee's problem hasn't been the drugs. It's been the human beings who are administering it. Carruthers can't find a vein. That's human error. That has nothing to do with the drug. This situation, it looks like the drugs didn't properly get into her system. That is human error. State of Tennessee, once again, had to delay for years an execution of somebody in 2025.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: Why?
00:11:03
Speaker 1: Because they didn't look at the goddamn expiration dates on the pentobarbital, and it wasn't tested properly. But, gross, that's all human stuff. So we could talk about drugs all day. Where are they coming from? What are the... Robes, they're not getting into the arm properly in the first place. So botched executions, how many have we seen, Robes? And I know they have numbers on them and whatnot.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: I have the numbers.
00:11:23
Speaker 1: But how many do they put on failed drugs? These drugs are not effective.
00:11:29
Speaker 2: Here's what I was able to find out from the Death Penalty Info Center. The Death Penalty Information Center is actually a really incredible site that has a lot of really interesting facts. But since 1982... there have been at least 64 botched executions. 51 of them were lethal injections. And seven of those occurred because officials could not properly insert IV lines.
00:11:54
Speaker 3: Those are the numbers.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: And the numbers they put on, it's kind of jarring. We should only have one method of execution in this country. Because on that list you have, Rose, it shows you how many have been botched and the percentages that are botched. There's one method of execution that has zero botched executions.
00:12:17
Speaker 3: Firing squad?
00:12:18
Speaker 1: Firing squad. Zero. None of them botched. It's the only one on the list that didn't have something.
00:12:26
Speaker 3: It's true.
00:12:27
Speaker 2: There was even one other case. They say there was one other case from 1946. Florida teenager Willie Francis survived being electrocuted in the electric chair. He was just 17 years old. Next year at 18, tried it again. This time it worked. But yeah, even the electric chair. has proven to be, I guess, something that isn't reliable.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: That's a damn shame. That's horrific. They made him do that twice. That is horrific.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: I read that and my skin just crawled. It is awful.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Yes, if we're going to have state-sanctioned executions, then we at least better do them correctly and effectively the first time around.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: Not only is.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Krista Pike suffering right now, But so is Colleen Slemmer's mom and her family.
00:13:13
Speaker 3: That is the victim of Krista Pike.
00:13:14
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to tell you what Colleen Slemmer's mom had to say about what happened in Tennessee.
00:13:29
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are hearing.
00:13:32
Speaker 2: Now from Krista Pike's victim's mom, Colleen Slemmer, we've talked about this. She and her husband, this is May Martinez and her husband Raul, they drove 11 hours from Florida to Tennessee. They walked into that death chamber not once but twice. And they watched as Krista Pike was given what they thought was going to be two separate lethal.
00:13:57
Speaker 3: Dosages of pentobarbital.
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Should have been one. One should have worked.
00:14:02
Speaker 2: This is what May Martinez had to say. She said, I stood in front of that window and I watched her very, very carefully.
00:14:09
Speaker 3: I did not take my eyes off of her.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: I wanted her to remember who Colleen was and what they've done and never forget that thought no matter where she goes. So she's sitting there and she's thinking these things and she's waiting and she's waiting and she's waiting. And then all of a sudden they're taken into the next room where they waited for more than an hour to talk to someone about what had happened.
00:14:29
Speaker 3: Can you imagine that? They have no idea what's going on.
00:14:33
Speaker 1: The part I can't imagine, Robes, and we haven't said it enough or really in this episode, but we have recalled, Robes, this girl had her throat slashed, had her body mutilated. She was beaten. She was kicked. She was mocked as she was tortured and killed over a half hour by this woman and her boyfriend at the time. That was 30 years ago, Robes. So this woman, her mom is standing there, only a window separating her from the woman who killed her daughter in that way 30 years ago. She's finally, this moment, she's staring. I've been waiting for this for 30 years for my daughter. Let's do it. Robes, that is.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: It's outrageous.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: I hope the governor called. I hope everybody is apologizing to this lady.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: They need to be, because apology is something she has talked about as well. She said that Krista Pike has never once apologized to her or apologized in any way for taking her daughter's life.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: And you know what?
00:15:41
Speaker 2: Krista's final words did not include an apology. In fact, I thought it was kind of strange. Her final words, to remind you, I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love. I feel like that's really kind of almost spitting in the face of the mother.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: Of Colleen Slummer.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: To say you've lived your life in love when you tortured her daughter. You don't take the moment in your final words to apologize to this woman.
00:16:09
Speaker 3: I thought that was pretty awful.
00:16:12
Speaker 1: You know, we always are, babe, surprised by final words. But what's to be expected? Those were supposed to be her final words. Will they end up being? We do not know.
00:16:22
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
00:16:23
Speaker 1: But Rose, it was an odd thing to say. I don't know where she is in her life, and she doesn't. Oh, this family necessarily in her mind, anything. Wow. But man, to go out like that.
00:16:37
Speaker 2: I've lived my life the way I'm going to die the way I've lived most of my life in love.
00:16:41
Speaker 1: So I do imagine what happened to Colleen Slimmer's mom's heart. Oh, what happened to her physically to hear that? I bet she reacted.
00:16:50
Speaker 3: That would have fired. Oh, it would have. It was like almost a final shot across the bow.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: And fucking kidding me, lady. Yeah. She probably wanted to bang through that glass in that moment.
00:17:01
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:17:01
Speaker 2: And she said, this was her quote, she has no remorse. She's never had any remorse in 31 years. And now we can't get justice for my daughter.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: It's done. She won't get justice. Isn't that something? That's what y'all told her justice was, the death penalty. And now you're telling her 30 years later, that's not justice anymore. You're going to have to settle for this other thing.
00:17:24
Speaker 3: We don't even know what the other thing is.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: Just a commutation of her ascendant?
00:17:28
Speaker 3: If she survives, could she be in a vegetative state? Is she in a coma? We have no idea what state Krista Pike is in right now.
00:17:37
Speaker 1: The way this is going to go now in courts, does she have a suit against the state now for what they have done to her? Are her lawyers going to go that route? What rally? Who's going to rally and march to kill this lady again? Who's going to march down the street? Yes, put her to death. This woman that we tortured. We tortured her back. Got her back for what she did to Colleen Slimmer all those years ago. This was torture.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Oh, I don't think anyone would disagree with that in any way, shape, or form. And look, it's... it's torture, and I don't know if it leads to change. I think that might be the only hope that could be the silver lining, that we make sure this never happens again, and if that means abolishing the death penalty, so be it.
00:18:28
Speaker 1: I don't know. To try it again, would you ever trust Tennessee to carry out another execution in five years? Come on, y'all, back to back. What are you doing, Tennessee? Come on. I mean, I'm sure they're well-meaning people. But, babe, this is one of those things you cannot have mistakes on. This is one you have to get right every single time, period.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: And they knew the world was watching. That's the thing. They knew what a big deal this was.
00:18:52
Speaker 2: The first time this state was going to execute a woman in more than 200 years. This has been a story for years. And certainly in the weeks leading up to this day, everyone was watching and they knew it.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: And they still... F'd it up.
00:19:09
Speaker 2: Well, we will continue to monitor what's going on there and what's happening with Krista Pike and certainly with the Slemmer family. But we always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:19:20
Speaker 3: We'll talk soon.