Oct. 3, 2026
UPDATE: Christa Pike Unconscious, Burned, And On A Ventilator
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RSS Feed The attorneys for 50 year old Christa Pike filed an emergency order to preserve all evidence from her botched execution attempt on Wednesday night. Pike’s attorneys detail her conditions, saying she is intubated , unconscious and on a ventilator with her arms swollen, blistered and burned. The filing alleges the medical team improperly placed the IV and both lethal doses of pentobarbital went into her body, not her veins, calling their actions “reckless” and “incompetent.”
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00:00:11
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, October 3rd. But on Wednesday, September 30th, the state of Tennessee went through all the motions to carry out an execution. But here we are on Saturday, October 3rd. That death row inmate is still alive. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes on a story that has really... gripped the nation all week, even before the execution took place, the execution which didn't work.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yes, this was a historic execution, or it was supposed to be.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: This was going to be the first woman in more than 200 years executed by the state of Tennessee.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Her name, Krista Pike.
00:00:53
Speaker 3: Pretty sure you know it by now because her name has been splashed all over the headlines.
00:00:59
Speaker 2: And we have been getting updates.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: The latest coming from her attorneys that Krista Pike is unconscious. She's intubated. She's breathing through a ventilator. She has significant injuries to both of her arms. And they have now filed a motion to protect all the evidence about what went wrong on Wednesday night.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Are they really possibly ropes going to get ready to file a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee over an execution?
00:01:29
Speaker 2: I would say a hundred percent.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Yes. This is incredible. The idea you could sue the state for messing up, killing you. Yep.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: They say that the execution team acted incompetently and showed deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs. And we'll get into the details later. of the filing that they have put into the courts. But it's pretty remarkable, and it absolutely details their intent to sue the state of Tennessee.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: This has been an extraordinary week. It really has, and a historic week. And, Rove, this will be one. I don't know how this doesn't change things. I don't know how this doesn't change people's attitudes, your moods about the death penalty. Rove, this is different. I don't care if you're for or against the death penalty. Is there anybody who's okay with what happened to her? No. Is anybody going to say, oops, oh, well, try it again? Nobody's going to say that. We know we're not supposed to do people like this.
00:02:22
Speaker 3: You feel physically ill when you start to hear what her attorneys are saying happened and maybe even more importantly didn't happen inside that execution chamber because we are entitled to not a pain-free death when it comes to executing inmates, but those inmates are entitled to be free from cruel and unusual death. pain or punishment. I think as human beings in this country, we all can agree on that. And yes, it's in our constitution.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Period. Point blank. Point blank. But there's a way we're supposed to kill people. I don't know the equivalent in a... What else do we use? We have firing squad and what else is used? Hanging. Is hanging still a thing?
00:03:03
Speaker 3: I don't know if it still is, but we did have hanging. We did have an electric chair.
00:03:06
Speaker 1: What would it be then in a botched... firing squad what if you missed the target shot them in the arm accidentally instead is that the equivalent of what we're talking about you tried to kill me and you messed up that's on you you don't get a second shot at this probes they should not get a second shot at killing this woman.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: If she survives. And that's a big if right now.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the same people that tried to kill her three days ago are trying to save her life.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: This is insane.
00:03:36
Speaker 3: So let's go over what the attorneys for Krista Pike filed on Friday in their emergency motion. Again, asking the state to preserve all the evidence from the botched execution. But they make some claims. They claim the medical staff did not follow protocol. like ensuring needles were fresh, functional, and here's the big important thing, inserted properly. Also, there was no emergency medical oxygen in the execution room in case something went wrong. In fact, they say medical professionals had to run and find it from somewhere else when they realized that she was potentially being deprived of oxygen.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's standard. If there are other people in execution chambers around the country, go, you idiots didn't have oxygen in there? Or if this is a common thing, I don't know, is it required? These are things we don't know. We're learning a lot about this. the death penalty, death chambers. We're learning a lot through this whole process.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: That's right.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: And her attorneys are accusing the Department of Corrections of inflicting, yes, cruel and unusual punishment through their deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs and reckless disregard of basic medical practices in their own lethal injection protocol.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: And here's what they say went wrong.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: And we talked about this because this makes the most sense given what all the witnesses saw and the details that have been described about her injuries. The pentobarbitrol went into her arm tissue.
00:04:57
Speaker 2: Rather than her vein.
00:04:58
Speaker 3: So either they inserted it improperly or I believe her veins can burst.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: That can happen. And you have to reinsert it and find a new vein.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: And so if it didn't work the first time, it most likely was that that lethal dose went into her arm tissue, into her body, and then they just put another lethal dose straight into her arm.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: Tissue and not actually into her vein.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: That's cruel and unusual.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: They say that would obviously result in a less than lethal dose, so it wouldn't kill her, but it was enough to suppress her respiratory system. So the question is, how long was her brain deprived of oxygen? That's why we're seeing her in the state she's in, unconscious, on a ventilator, and unable to breathe on her own.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: That's really, really bad. There are plenty of people who get on those things and don't get off. I don't know which one she is on and how, see if it's just the regular type or she's doing like how advanced, what is her body able to do on its own without a machine? I'm curious, are her organs functioning?
00:06:01
Speaker 3: And then the other question is, wouldn't it, would it be kinder to let her die? I don't know at this point. That's now they're in an absolute pickle.
00:06:10
Speaker 2: What do they do? Because once you go on a ventilator, when do you take that person off?
00:06:15
Speaker 1: Who gets to make that call? Is there anybody in her life that can?
00:06:18
Speaker 3: So this is what we got from the attorneys. They actually put out a statement. And so it does appear there are people.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: She put a plan in place. Here is what their statement said.
00:06:29
Speaker 3: We are working closely with those closest to Krista to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy, and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time. We asked the public and the media to respect that privacy as well. So yes, it sounds like they are in conversations with And they only put it this way, those closest to Krista to respect her wishes.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Okay, but do they get to make the call, right? Where are your rights at the end of life if you are in the hands of the state?
00:07:04
Speaker 3: It's a big question, and I don't know, well, I don't believe we've ever as a country been in this situation.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: Actual circumstance before.
00:07:12
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, babe, this is going to get crazy. You're telling me we might end up having a fight over who gets the quote unquote pool plug. Are we going down that road?
00:07:19
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Nobody's talking about, but it sounds like.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: They kind of are.
00:07:23
Speaker 3: I mean, we don't know. We just know she was on critical in critical condition. We know she's not breathing on her own. And I just think based on our experience, we know that that means either she is going to pull through on her own. Her body is going to be able to, regulate or it's not. And if it doesn't, yes, you have to remove someone from a ventilator. And that requires a decision from a family member or from someone who has been deemed her legal guardian.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: It may be her attorneys.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: Man, this is getting crazy. The country is debating saving the life of a death row inmate. You can't make this up.
00:08:04
Speaker 2: You cannot.
00:08:05
Speaker 3: And didn't we were talking about this when the news came through about Terry Schiavo, correct? And just that whole fight that went on between her husband and her parents, that went on for way too long. And you had this woman in a vegetative state who was on a feeding tube. So that's slightly different, but kind of a similar circumstance, except for this person is a resident of the Department of Corrections. So who gets to say what happens? Also of note, there's no reversal for Pento Barbatrol.
00:08:38
Speaker 2: There's no medicine. There's no reversal. There's no medicine. There's no antidote.
00:08:41
Speaker 3: Either your liver actually can process it and get rid of it, so to speak, or it can't. And we don't know, and we aren't being told whether or not that's likely or even possible at this point.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: What does that stuff do to your body? I mean, I assume there have to be effects. They give this stuff to people who have seizures, they give this stuff to people to literally slow down your central nervous system. They give you a lot of it and it'll kill you. What level does she get? Does anyone know how much of this stuff actually got into her system?
00:09:18
Speaker 3: No, they don't because it looks like it almost is certain now that it didn't go into her vein. It didn't go into her bloodstream. It might have started that way, but I believe they call it infused. I've had this happen.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: I've had an IV.
00:09:29
Speaker 3: I've been in the hospital for an extended period of time and I've had this happen to me. your whole arm like swells up because you can literally see whatever they're intending to put in your bloodstream suddenly escapes out of your vein and goes into your muscle tissue. It's incredibly painful. And the moment it starts happening, it happened to me one time. I'm like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: It starts to burn.
00:09:51
Speaker 3: And there should be an immediate response from nurses, doctors to pull the ivy out and to reinsert it and it does not no one is describing that scene having taken place at.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: All because possibly they didn't know what they were doing correct what you describe a trained professional who sees that happening knows immediately.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: Oh yes something's wrong okay yes yes.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: And they have to be trained professionals maybe they don't do this all the time but we're We act like they just pulled somebody from Cell Block D and said, hey, yo, that's not what happened. These are supposed to be people who know what they're doing. Supposed to be.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: Supposed to be. Supposed to be, but yes.
00:10:23
Speaker 1: I wonder who... Wasn't this an all-woman crew? Yes. They did get an all-woman crew.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: That was the request by Krista Pike that if she were to actually be executed, because obviously she was fighting not to be, but because of the trauma she faced at the hands of men through most of her life with repeated sexual.
00:10:40
Speaker 2: Assaults, she asked that the team.
00:10:43
Speaker 3: that administer the lethal dose of pentobarbital would be an all-female team, and we did get confirmation.
00:10:49
Speaker 2: That at least that one wish was granted.
00:10:52
Speaker 1: Will that be factored into this investigation, babe, in that you're putting together a team you don't normally put together? Did you take people who maybe didn't have as much experience?
00:11:02
Speaker 2: That's possible. That's absolutely possible. And, yeah, you mentioned pentobarbital.
00:11:07
Speaker 3: This is what it's actually described as a short-acting barbiturate drug that yes, depresses the central nervous system, causes sedation, loss of consciousness, and in high doses, respiratory arrest and death. So it looks like respiratory arrest happened, but death did not.
00:11:25
Speaker 2: How is this?
00:11:26
Speaker 1: I don't know how this is. This is one of the stories of our lifetime. This is incredible. They tried to kill somebody and it didn't work. What did you say, 1946 was the last time they tried this? Correct.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: With an electric chair.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: With a kid, right?
00:11:36
Speaker 2: 17-year-old kid, yes.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: And they came back and did it again, didn't they?
00:11:39
Speaker 3: Next year they put him back in the chair and it worked the next time. But, yes, this is just an awful situation. Now, in terms of the Department of Corrections, they did not have a response to this motion. Of course, you can imagine all of the reporters calling the DOC. But their whole point is, and to your point about there being a lawsuit, their response was, we don't comment on pending litigation. Now, yes, but you know who did comment? Colleen Slemmer's mom. When we come back, we will hear directly from May Martinez, who spoke to an ABC affiliate after she returned home from traveling all the way to Tennessee to watch what she thought was going to be her daughter's murder or die. Welcome back to Amy and TJ on this Saturday as we are still waiting to see medically what happens to Krista Pike. We know she's on a ventilator. We know she's unconscious. We know she has significant injuries to both of her arms. And we don't know at this point if she is going to survive the attempt to execute her.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: I mean, what happens? What's the right thing? How do we move forward? I mean, is it the right thing? What in this story we will ever feel good about? Nothing. She survives, goes back to prison for the rest of her life. You feel good about that? What kind of shape is she in? Is she in shape? Medical now, shape, baby. Is she strong and healthy enough to survive another 40 years in prison? If you don't, kill her.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: We don't even know if she's going to wake up at this point or be able to breathe on her own.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: So, scenarios. Scenarios. First one, she survives, goes back to prison. Second one, she survives and they put her back on death row. Third one is she does not survive this, babe. What happens then? Well, the result was the same even though we really screwed up killing her.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to see for sure Krista Pike's attorneys sue the Department of Corrections and this could be, and we've talked about this, a landmark case that forever changes the death penalty in this country. Period.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Rose, I wonder if there are any type of is the state indemnified in some way? Can you sue the state over your execution? It hasn't happened before because nobody survived to sue them over the execution. Can you?
00:14:05
Speaker 3: I would imagine anything is possible when it comes to litigation in this country.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Right, exactly.
00:14:11
Speaker 3: We have heard from May Martinez, Colleen Slemmer's mom. She gave an interview once she returned home. I can't imagine what that drive back was. I believe they said it was an 11-hour drive from her home in Florida, to Tennessee. Now you're driving back and you are in a completely different state of mind than you thought you would be when you were driving to Tennessee. She said when she got home, this is what she said, it's hard. I broke down in tears. She was laying on the table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head. She's describing what she saw, Krista Pike, in that execution chamber. She saw someone who was talking, laughing, picking up her head. That's not what we heard described from reporters in the room, but isn't it interesting to hear what she saw?
00:15:00
Speaker 1: And again, Ro, she described as well standing like right near the glass. I don't know. Is that true? Is that possible? Is that allowed? But she described specifically like damn near her head was pressed against the glass.
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: Looking at this woman. So maybe she saw a vantage point that other people didn't see, but robes. People need to hear from this woman. They do. Like, there is no point, if you are listening to this ever, ever, ever, reading about Krista Pike's story, you have got to, got to, find out about Colleen Slimmer. You need to hear from Colleen Slimmer's mom. And babe, that's just an important balance to this story, where people, yes, I feel awful for what happened to Krista Pike. I feel just as awful that her mom, Colleen Slimmer's mom, had her face... pressed against that glass, a moment she's waited 31 years for, and she sees her daughter's killer, brutal killer, laughing, talking, using last words to say, I'm leaving this world the way I lived, in love. What? And then this. That woman is suffering. Her child was 19 when she had a knife slashed her child up. That knife was in the hands of Krista Pike, who We feel sorry for now. You can feel sorry for what happened to this woman, but ropes, that perspective should always, we should never ever mention Krista Pike's name without Colleen Slimmer's name and her mom's and Colleen Slimmer's mom's name. Babe, she described something that's just... And the other part, who's apologized to her?
00:16:31
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: So asked if anyone has apologized to her. She said, no, nobody apologized. And I think the state owes me a big apology. This next line that she gave broke my heart. And as a mother, I failed her.
00:16:50
Speaker 1: That's so heartbreaking. Still, still, still, 31 years later, still dealing with Krista Pike. Krista Pike should be held completely responsible for killing Colleen Slimmer. The state of Tennessee needs to be held responsible for what you're doing to Colleen Slimmer's mom. She should get paid.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: I agree.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: I agree. And I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a lawsuit from her because her next few lines.
00:17:19
Speaker 3: Just give a suggestion that she, this is not done for her. And she is so angry and she has every right to be. Um, she said that she asked what would happen next if Krista goes to prison. And she said the, the prison system, I don't know who she spoke to, told her this. We don't know what we're doing with her yet. That's the answer I got. I said, here we are. 31 years, and you're laughing in my face again?
00:17:46
Speaker 2: And that's what I feel like they did.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And she's talking about the Department of Corrections laughing in her face.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Her last statement, all I wanted was justice.
00:17:58
Speaker 1: This is so wrong. It's an extraordinary story. There are lives and robes. There's mercy and to go all around. But what that woman is going through, she's And to hear the governor's making some comments, and he was asked if he had talked to her and said he hadn't touched base with Colleen Slimmer's mom.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: That's appalling. That should have been the first phone call he made.
00:18:21
Speaker 1: She hasn't heard from the state. Not even an assistant to the governor. Man, come on, Tennessee.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Are we getting to a place now where the governor and the Department of Corrections doesn't want to apologize to May Martinez because they don't want to admit wrongdoing because they're afraid of getting sued?
00:18:37
Speaker 1: Okay, fine. This is where... We struggle, Robes, to be human beings first. We were not decent humans with Krista Pike in the first place, in the execution. Robes, he should have picked up the phone immediately. I don't know why. To hear her say that she hasn't heard from anybody from the state, that is the state saying, fuck you. We don't give a damn about the victim in this case.
00:19:04
Speaker 3: All we care about is covering our own asses.
00:19:07
Speaker 1: That is a hell. It is Saturday. That execution was on Wednesday, and she ain't heard of nobody? Maybe they can't get the number. Maybe they're looking for it.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: The only answer she said she got was, we don't know what we're doing with her yet.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: Exactly. Now, that's one thing we all agree with. We all don't have any idea what you're doing. Tennessee, love you. Love you.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: You got to do better.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: We need leadership, baby. We need somebody to step up and tell us all, you know what, guys? This was awful. Why is nobody doing that?
00:19:37
Speaker 3: All right.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: So what has Trump said on this thing?
00:19:42
Speaker 2: I have to look that up to get his exact wording.
00:19:45
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gotten involved in this one. Oh, so he has said, he has made a comment. Okay, I don't know if he has. has. Again, I just threw it out there to, you know, he made some comments and Lindsey Clancy, this thing now is... bubbling up, so maybe he was making some kind of, I wonder where he is on this.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: He did say something. He said it shouldn't be very difficult.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: He was talking about his thoughts on the execution and he said, well, that was an interesting situation, but you're going to have to speak to Tennessee about it and whether or not they're going forward.
00:20:18
Speaker 2: So he's pushing it off to the state of Tennessee. He said, you know what?
00:20:22
Speaker 3: That was about an execution where the medication didn't exactly work.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: He said, basically, that.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: The former White House physician who was there, he said, you should ask him.
00:20:34
Speaker 2: He would answer it better than anybody. How does it happen?
00:20:36
Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds about right.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: So he's just, like, throwing it to the state of Tennessee, throwing it to the White House, his former White House physician.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: Hey, why don't you answer these questions and tell them?
00:20:45
Speaker 1: That means he's not following it that closely, and it doesn't benefit him in any way politically. Because if he knew he could use this to split people in some way on his side, he would use it. Okay, so he's not that engaged. Robes, I.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: This is what's going to happen. Are we going to wake up next couple of days? Is she awake?
00:21:03
Speaker 3: We're going to have to wait and see. This is going to be an hour by hour, day by day situation. And we are still waiting to hear officially from the state of Tennessee about some sort of official response to what's going on, what's happening to her, what's going to happen next.
00:21:18
Speaker 2: And yes, an apology. We will wait.
00:21:21
Speaker 3: We may be waiting a really long time for it, but they deserve some answers. The family of Colleen Slimmer. The people who are close to Krista Pike and, frankly, this nation, we deserve some sort of statement.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: Okay. How about this as a compromise? Everywhere. Abolish every method of execution except the one in which they have not had a botched execution.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Firing squad.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: One method. Why doesn't everybody use that?
00:21:48
Speaker 2: We may be headed in that direction.
00:21:49
Speaker 1: What was it? South Carolina uses it? Doesn't Utah use it? South Carolina has used it in the past couple years.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: Because people requested it.
00:21:55
Speaker 1: Okay, why wouldn't that be the case? The Supreme Court's not calling that cruel and unusual. There is a method that works 100% of the time.
00:22:04
Speaker 3: It just seems barbaric. And is that why people don't want to do it? Because it looks bad, it sounds bad, it sounds terrible.
00:22:12
Speaker 1: Shooting somebody? Yep.
00:22:13
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, what we did with her. Put a needle in somebody's arm and just give them drugs and let them go to sleep. That's more humane. Right?
00:22:20
Speaker 2: Only if it works.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: And how many times has it not? There have been plenty of botched.
00:22:24
Speaker 3: Ones, baby. Dozens and dozens and dozens of times. I think it's in the 50s at this point. It sounds so easy.
00:22:29
Speaker 1: And then the nitrous oxygen, the nitrous gas. They stopped that, haven't they.
00:22:34
Speaker 3: In Alabama?
00:22:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that apparently was painful. It was excruciating to watch.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: We don't know how to kill people.
00:22:40
Speaker 2: We do not know how to kill people. That's insane.
00:22:42
Speaker 3: But yes, more to come on this. There has to be some changes happening. in the way we do things in this country, period. That is at least the one thing that came out of this horrific, horrific botched execution. We always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, October 3rd. But on Wednesday, September 30th, the state of Tennessee went through all the motions to carry out an execution. But here we are on Saturday, October 3rd. That death row inmate is still alive. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes on a story that has really... gripped the nation all week, even before the execution took place, the execution which didn't work.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yes, this was a historic execution, or it was supposed to be.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: This was going to be the first woman in more than 200 years executed by the state of Tennessee.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Her name, Krista Pike.
00:00:53
Speaker 3: Pretty sure you know it by now because her name has been splashed all over the headlines.
00:00:59
Speaker 2: And we have been getting updates.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: The latest coming from her attorneys that Krista Pike is unconscious. She's intubated. She's breathing through a ventilator. She has significant injuries to both of her arms. And they have now filed a motion to protect all the evidence about what went wrong on Wednesday night.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Are they really possibly ropes going to get ready to file a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee over an execution?
00:01:29
Speaker 2: I would say a hundred percent.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: Yes. This is incredible. The idea you could sue the state for messing up, killing you. Yep.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: They say that the execution team acted incompetently and showed deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs. And we'll get into the details later. of the filing that they have put into the courts. But it's pretty remarkable, and it absolutely details their intent to sue the state of Tennessee.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: This has been an extraordinary week. It really has, and a historic week. And, Rove, this will be one. I don't know how this doesn't change things. I don't know how this doesn't change people's attitudes, your moods about the death penalty. Rove, this is different. I don't care if you're for or against the death penalty. Is there anybody who's okay with what happened to her? No. Is anybody going to say, oops, oh, well, try it again? Nobody's going to say that. We know we're not supposed to do people like this.
00:02:22
Speaker 3: You feel physically ill when you start to hear what her attorneys are saying happened and maybe even more importantly didn't happen inside that execution chamber because we are entitled to not a pain-free death when it comes to executing inmates, but those inmates are entitled to be free from cruel and unusual death. pain or punishment. I think as human beings in this country, we all can agree on that. And yes, it's in our constitution.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Period. Point blank. Point blank. But there's a way we're supposed to kill people. I don't know the equivalent in a... What else do we use? We have firing squad and what else is used? Hanging. Is hanging still a thing?
00:03:03
Speaker 3: I don't know if it still is, but we did have hanging. We did have an electric chair.
00:03:06
Speaker 1: What would it be then in a botched... firing squad what if you missed the target shot them in the arm accidentally instead is that the equivalent of what we're talking about you tried to kill me and you messed up that's on you you don't get a second shot at this probes they should not get a second shot at killing this woman.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: If she survives. And that's a big if right now.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the same people that tried to kill her three days ago are trying to save her life.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: This is insane.
00:03:36
Speaker 3: So let's go over what the attorneys for Krista Pike filed on Friday in their emergency motion. Again, asking the state to preserve all the evidence from the botched execution. But they make some claims. They claim the medical staff did not follow protocol. like ensuring needles were fresh, functional, and here's the big important thing, inserted properly. Also, there was no emergency medical oxygen in the execution room in case something went wrong. In fact, they say medical professionals had to run and find it from somewhere else when they realized that she was potentially being deprived of oxygen.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's standard. If there are other people in execution chambers around the country, go, you idiots didn't have oxygen in there? Or if this is a common thing, I don't know, is it required? These are things we don't know. We're learning a lot about this. the death penalty, death chambers. We're learning a lot through this whole process.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: That's right.
00:04:29
Speaker 3: And her attorneys are accusing the Department of Corrections of inflicting, yes, cruel and unusual punishment through their deliberate indifference to her basic medical needs and reckless disregard of basic medical practices in their own lethal injection protocol.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: And here's what they say went wrong.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: And we talked about this because this makes the most sense given what all the witnesses saw and the details that have been described about her injuries. The pentobarbitrol went into her arm tissue.
00:04:57
Speaker 2: Rather than her vein.
00:04:58
Speaker 3: So either they inserted it improperly or I believe her veins can burst.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: That can happen. And you have to reinsert it and find a new vein.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: And so if it didn't work the first time, it most likely was that that lethal dose went into her arm tissue, into her body, and then they just put another lethal dose straight into her arm.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: Tissue and not actually into her vein.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: That's cruel and unusual.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: They say that would obviously result in a less than lethal dose, so it wouldn't kill her, but it was enough to suppress her respiratory system. So the question is, how long was her brain deprived of oxygen? That's why we're seeing her in the state she's in, unconscious, on a ventilator, and unable to breathe on her own.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: That's really, really bad. There are plenty of people who get on those things and don't get off. I don't know which one she is on and how, see if it's just the regular type or she's doing like how advanced, what is her body able to do on its own without a machine? I'm curious, are her organs functioning?
00:06:01
Speaker 3: And then the other question is, wouldn't it, would it be kinder to let her die? I don't know at this point. That's now they're in an absolute pickle.
00:06:10
Speaker 2: What do they do? Because once you go on a ventilator, when do you take that person off?
00:06:15
Speaker 1: Who gets to make that call? Is there anybody in her life that can?
00:06:18
Speaker 3: So this is what we got from the attorneys. They actually put out a statement. And so it does appear there are people.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: She put a plan in place. Here is what their statement said.
00:06:29
Speaker 3: We are working closely with those closest to Krista to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy, and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time. We asked the public and the media to respect that privacy as well. So yes, it sounds like they are in conversations with And they only put it this way, those closest to Krista to respect her wishes.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Okay, but do they get to make the call, right? Where are your rights at the end of life if you are in the hands of the state?
00:07:04
Speaker 3: It's a big question, and I don't know, well, I don't believe we've ever as a country been in this situation.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: Actual circumstance before.
00:07:12
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, babe, this is going to get crazy. You're telling me we might end up having a fight over who gets the quote unquote pool plug. Are we going down that road?
00:07:19
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Nobody's talking about, but it sounds like.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: They kind of are.
00:07:23
Speaker 3: I mean, we don't know. We just know she was on critical in critical condition. We know she's not breathing on her own. And I just think based on our experience, we know that that means either she is going to pull through on her own. Her body is going to be able to, regulate or it's not. And if it doesn't, yes, you have to remove someone from a ventilator. And that requires a decision from a family member or from someone who has been deemed her legal guardian.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: It may be her attorneys.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: Man, this is getting crazy. The country is debating saving the life of a death row inmate. You can't make this up.
00:08:04
Speaker 2: You cannot.
00:08:05
Speaker 3: And didn't we were talking about this when the news came through about Terry Schiavo, correct? And just that whole fight that went on between her husband and her parents, that went on for way too long. And you had this woman in a vegetative state who was on a feeding tube. So that's slightly different, but kind of a similar circumstance, except for this person is a resident of the Department of Corrections. So who gets to say what happens? Also of note, there's no reversal for Pento Barbatrol.
00:08:38
Speaker 2: There's no medicine. There's no reversal. There's no medicine. There's no antidote.
00:08:41
Speaker 3: Either your liver actually can process it and get rid of it, so to speak, or it can't. And we don't know, and we aren't being told whether or not that's likely or even possible at this point.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: What does that stuff do to your body? I mean, I assume there have to be effects. They give this stuff to people who have seizures, they give this stuff to people to literally slow down your central nervous system. They give you a lot of it and it'll kill you. What level does she get? Does anyone know how much of this stuff actually got into her system?
00:09:18
Speaker 3: No, they don't because it looks like it almost is certain now that it didn't go into her vein. It didn't go into her bloodstream. It might have started that way, but I believe they call it infused. I've had this happen.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: I've had an IV.
00:09:29
Speaker 3: I've been in the hospital for an extended period of time and I've had this happen to me. your whole arm like swells up because you can literally see whatever they're intending to put in your bloodstream suddenly escapes out of your vein and goes into your muscle tissue. It's incredibly painful. And the moment it starts happening, it happened to me one time. I'm like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: It starts to burn.
00:09:51
Speaker 3: And there should be an immediate response from nurses, doctors to pull the ivy out and to reinsert it and it does not no one is describing that scene having taken place at.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: All because possibly they didn't know what they were doing correct what you describe a trained professional who sees that happening knows immediately.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: Oh yes something's wrong okay yes yes.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: And they have to be trained professionals maybe they don't do this all the time but we're We act like they just pulled somebody from Cell Block D and said, hey, yo, that's not what happened. These are supposed to be people who know what they're doing. Supposed to be.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: Supposed to be. Supposed to be, but yes.
00:10:23
Speaker 1: I wonder who... Wasn't this an all-woman crew? Yes. They did get an all-woman crew.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: That was the request by Krista Pike that if she were to actually be executed, because obviously she was fighting not to be, but because of the trauma she faced at the hands of men through most of her life with repeated sexual.
00:10:40
Speaker 2: Assaults, she asked that the team.
00:10:43
Speaker 3: that administer the lethal dose of pentobarbital would be an all-female team, and we did get confirmation.
00:10:49
Speaker 2: That at least that one wish was granted.
00:10:52
Speaker 1: Will that be factored into this investigation, babe, in that you're putting together a team you don't normally put together? Did you take people who maybe didn't have as much experience?
00:11:02
Speaker 2: That's possible. That's absolutely possible. And, yeah, you mentioned pentobarbital.
00:11:07
Speaker 3: This is what it's actually described as a short-acting barbiturate drug that yes, depresses the central nervous system, causes sedation, loss of consciousness, and in high doses, respiratory arrest and death. So it looks like respiratory arrest happened, but death did not.
00:11:25
Speaker 2: How is this?
00:11:26
Speaker 1: I don't know how this is. This is one of the stories of our lifetime. This is incredible. They tried to kill somebody and it didn't work. What did you say, 1946 was the last time they tried this? Correct.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: With an electric chair.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: With a kid, right?
00:11:36
Speaker 2: 17-year-old kid, yes.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: And they came back and did it again, didn't they?
00:11:39
Speaker 3: Next year they put him back in the chair and it worked the next time. But, yes, this is just an awful situation. Now, in terms of the Department of Corrections, they did not have a response to this motion. Of course, you can imagine all of the reporters calling the DOC. But their whole point is, and to your point about there being a lawsuit, their response was, we don't comment on pending litigation. Now, yes, but you know who did comment? Colleen Slemmer's mom. When we come back, we will hear directly from May Martinez, who spoke to an ABC affiliate after she returned home from traveling all the way to Tennessee to watch what she thought was going to be her daughter's murder or die. Welcome back to Amy and TJ on this Saturday as we are still waiting to see medically what happens to Krista Pike. We know she's on a ventilator. We know she's unconscious. We know she has significant injuries to both of her arms. And we don't know at this point if she is going to survive the attempt to execute her.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: I mean, what happens? What's the right thing? How do we move forward? I mean, is it the right thing? What in this story we will ever feel good about? Nothing. She survives, goes back to prison for the rest of her life. You feel good about that? What kind of shape is she in? Is she in shape? Medical now, shape, baby. Is she strong and healthy enough to survive another 40 years in prison? If you don't, kill her.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: We don't even know if she's going to wake up at this point or be able to breathe on her own.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: So, scenarios. Scenarios. First one, she survives, goes back to prison. Second one, she survives and they put her back on death row. Third one is she does not survive this, babe. What happens then? Well, the result was the same even though we really screwed up killing her.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to see for sure Krista Pike's attorneys sue the Department of Corrections and this could be, and we've talked about this, a landmark case that forever changes the death penalty in this country. Period.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Rose, I wonder if there are any type of is the state indemnified in some way? Can you sue the state over your execution? It hasn't happened before because nobody survived to sue them over the execution. Can you?
00:14:05
Speaker 3: I would imagine anything is possible when it comes to litigation in this country.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Right, exactly.
00:14:11
Speaker 3: We have heard from May Martinez, Colleen Slemmer's mom. She gave an interview once she returned home. I can't imagine what that drive back was. I believe they said it was an 11-hour drive from her home in Florida, to Tennessee. Now you're driving back and you are in a completely different state of mind than you thought you would be when you were driving to Tennessee. She said when she got home, this is what she said, it's hard. I broke down in tears. She was laying on the table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head. She's describing what she saw, Krista Pike, in that execution chamber. She saw someone who was talking, laughing, picking up her head. That's not what we heard described from reporters in the room, but isn't it interesting to hear what she saw?
00:15:00
Speaker 1: And again, Ro, she described as well standing like right near the glass. I don't know. Is that true? Is that possible? Is that allowed? But she described specifically like damn near her head was pressed against the glass.
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: Looking at this woman. So maybe she saw a vantage point that other people didn't see, but robes. People need to hear from this woman. They do. Like, there is no point, if you are listening to this ever, ever, ever, reading about Krista Pike's story, you have got to, got to, find out about Colleen Slimmer. You need to hear from Colleen Slimmer's mom. And babe, that's just an important balance to this story, where people, yes, I feel awful for what happened to Krista Pike. I feel just as awful that her mom, Colleen Slimmer's mom, had her face... pressed against that glass, a moment she's waited 31 years for, and she sees her daughter's killer, brutal killer, laughing, talking, using last words to say, I'm leaving this world the way I lived, in love. What? And then this. That woman is suffering. Her child was 19 when she had a knife slashed her child up. That knife was in the hands of Krista Pike, who We feel sorry for now. You can feel sorry for what happened to this woman, but ropes, that perspective should always, we should never ever mention Krista Pike's name without Colleen Slimmer's name and her mom's and Colleen Slimmer's mom's name. Babe, she described something that's just... And the other part, who's apologized to her?
00:16:31
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: So asked if anyone has apologized to her. She said, no, nobody apologized. And I think the state owes me a big apology. This next line that she gave broke my heart. And as a mother, I failed her.
00:16:50
Speaker 1: That's so heartbreaking. Still, still, still, 31 years later, still dealing with Krista Pike. Krista Pike should be held completely responsible for killing Colleen Slimmer. The state of Tennessee needs to be held responsible for what you're doing to Colleen Slimmer's mom. She should get paid.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: I agree.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: I agree. And I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a lawsuit from her because her next few lines.
00:17:19
Speaker 3: Just give a suggestion that she, this is not done for her. And she is so angry and she has every right to be. Um, she said that she asked what would happen next if Krista goes to prison. And she said the, the prison system, I don't know who she spoke to, told her this. We don't know what we're doing with her yet. That's the answer I got. I said, here we are. 31 years, and you're laughing in my face again?
00:17:46
Speaker 2: And that's what I feel like they did.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And she's talking about the Department of Corrections laughing in her face.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Her last statement, all I wanted was justice.
00:17:58
Speaker 1: This is so wrong. It's an extraordinary story. There are lives and robes. There's mercy and to go all around. But what that woman is going through, she's And to hear the governor's making some comments, and he was asked if he had talked to her and said he hadn't touched base with Colleen Slimmer's mom.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: That's appalling. That should have been the first phone call he made.
00:18:21
Speaker 1: She hasn't heard from the state. Not even an assistant to the governor. Man, come on, Tennessee.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Are we getting to a place now where the governor and the Department of Corrections doesn't want to apologize to May Martinez because they don't want to admit wrongdoing because they're afraid of getting sued?
00:18:37
Speaker 1: Okay, fine. This is where... We struggle, Robes, to be human beings first. We were not decent humans with Krista Pike in the first place, in the execution. Robes, he should have picked up the phone immediately. I don't know why. To hear her say that she hasn't heard from anybody from the state, that is the state saying, fuck you. We don't give a damn about the victim in this case.
00:19:04
Speaker 3: All we care about is covering our own asses.
00:19:07
Speaker 1: That is a hell. It is Saturday. That execution was on Wednesday, and she ain't heard of nobody? Maybe they can't get the number. Maybe they're looking for it.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: The only answer she said she got was, we don't know what we're doing with her yet.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: Exactly. Now, that's one thing we all agree with. We all don't have any idea what you're doing. Tennessee, love you. Love you.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: You got to do better.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: We need leadership, baby. We need somebody to step up and tell us all, you know what, guys? This was awful. Why is nobody doing that?
00:19:37
Speaker 3: All right.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: So what has Trump said on this thing?
00:19:42
Speaker 2: I have to look that up to get his exact wording.
00:19:45
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gotten involved in this one. Oh, so he has said, he has made a comment. Okay, I don't know if he has. has. Again, I just threw it out there to, you know, he made some comments and Lindsey Clancy, this thing now is... bubbling up, so maybe he was making some kind of, I wonder where he is on this.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: He did say something. He said it shouldn't be very difficult.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: He was talking about his thoughts on the execution and he said, well, that was an interesting situation, but you're going to have to speak to Tennessee about it and whether or not they're going forward.
00:20:18
Speaker 2: So he's pushing it off to the state of Tennessee. He said, you know what?
00:20:22
Speaker 3: That was about an execution where the medication didn't exactly work.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: He said, basically, that.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: The former White House physician who was there, he said, you should ask him.
00:20:34
Speaker 2: He would answer it better than anybody. How does it happen?
00:20:36
Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds about right.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: So he's just, like, throwing it to the state of Tennessee, throwing it to the White House, his former White House physician.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: Hey, why don't you answer these questions and tell them?
00:20:45
Speaker 1: That means he's not following it that closely, and it doesn't benefit him in any way politically. Because if he knew he could use this to split people in some way on his side, he would use it. Okay, so he's not that engaged. Robes, I.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: This is what's going to happen. Are we going to wake up next couple of days? Is she awake?
00:21:03
Speaker 3: We're going to have to wait and see. This is going to be an hour by hour, day by day situation. And we are still waiting to hear officially from the state of Tennessee about some sort of official response to what's going on, what's happening to her, what's going to happen next.
00:21:18
Speaker 2: And yes, an apology. We will wait.
00:21:21
Speaker 3: We may be waiting a really long time for it, but they deserve some answers. The family of Colleen Slimmer. The people who are close to Krista Pike and, frankly, this nation, we deserve some sort of statement.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: Okay. How about this as a compromise? Everywhere. Abolish every method of execution except the one in which they have not had a botched execution.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Firing squad.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: One method. Why doesn't everybody use that?
00:21:48
Speaker 2: We may be headed in that direction.
00:21:49
Speaker 1: What was it? South Carolina uses it? Doesn't Utah use it? South Carolina has used it in the past couple years.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: Because people requested it.
00:21:55
Speaker 1: Okay, why wouldn't that be the case? The Supreme Court's not calling that cruel and unusual. There is a method that works 100% of the time.
00:22:04
Speaker 3: It just seems barbaric. And is that why people don't want to do it? Because it looks bad, it sounds bad, it sounds terrible.
00:22:12
Speaker 1: Shooting somebody? Yep.
00:22:13
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, what we did with her. Put a needle in somebody's arm and just give them drugs and let them go to sleep. That's more humane. Right?
00:22:20
Speaker 2: Only if it works.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: And how many times has it not? There have been plenty of botched.
00:22:24
Speaker 3: Ones, baby. Dozens and dozens and dozens of times. I think it's in the 50s at this point. It sounds so easy.
00:22:29
Speaker 1: And then the nitrous oxygen, the nitrous gas. They stopped that, haven't they.
00:22:34
Speaker 3: In Alabama?
00:22:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that apparently was painful. It was excruciating to watch.
00:22:38
Speaker 1: We don't know how to kill people.
00:22:40
Speaker 2: We do not know how to kill people. That's insane.
00:22:42
Speaker 3: But yes, more to come on this. There has to be some changes happening. in the way we do things in this country, period. That is at least the one thing that came out of this horrific, horrific botched execution. We always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.