Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Christa Pike “Mad as H*ll” Walking, Talking, Angry After Botched Execution, to Face “Old Sparky?”

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

Christa Pike has returned to prison after her discharged from the hospital.  She survived a  botched lethal injection attempt of two doses of pentobarbital during her scheduled execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. According to reports, the drug likely spread under her skin due to a faulty IV line rather than entering her bloodstream. After spending days unconscious and on a ventilator, Pike woke up, regained speech, and began walking with assistance Dispatchers initially delayed sending an ambulance for roughly 30 minutes because they suspected the emergency call from the maximum-security prison was a "prank call".  Audio logs detailed emergency responders waiting outside the prison gates while officials scrambled to verify if the request for medical help was legitimate.   Pike's next court hearing is scheduled for October 23.    Joining Nancy Grace today:  Mike Jaafar -  Trial Attorney.  Founder: www.bigcasemike.com   Dr. Bethany Marshall -   Psychoanalyst,  Author: "Deal Breaker, featured on the hit show: "Paris in Love" on Peacock and "The Valley, Persian Style" on Bravo, Host : "On The Couch with Dr. Bethany Marshall," Website: drbethanymarshall.com, Instagram FB & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, Twitter:@DrBethanyLive  Dr. DeWayne Hendrix - former Senior Warden with the Federal Bureau of Prisons,   Author of "Who Are You? See It, Say It, and Seize It" (IG) @drdewaynehendrix (LinkedIn)  @anewdaylight (X-Twitter)   Joseph Scott Morgan  -  Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", YouTube Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan", @JoScottForensic Tori Gessner  - Anchor/Reporter WKRN, Witnessed Botched Execution of Christa Pike, social: @ToriGessnerTV   Dave Mack  - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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there, anywhere. The Hard Rock Back Casino app is now in Ontario. Download the app. Roll with us. Must be 19 years of age or older to play. Only. Please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you, visit connectsonterio.ca. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Convicted torture killer. Krista Pike is mad as hell. She's walking. She's talking and angry. This, as Ms. Pike is facing Old Sparky. That's right, the electric chair. Old Sparky after her botched execution by needle tonight. we obtained the 911 call. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us.

Colleen was lured to a remote area. She was tortured. Pentegrams cut into her skin. Her mother will never hold her teen girl in her arms again. I was astonished when we're 10 minutes in and she's moving her. head and her foot is moving and she's still talking it became pretty apparent within a few minutes Nancy that this was going wrong that things were not happening the way they were supposed to my client Chris Cidale's height is undergoing a state execution she has completed the stages of the protocol and lastly we knew for the attorneys who's present she is still alive and breathing

and needs immediate life-saving care she's 50 years old her date of birth this March 10th, 1976. Okay, and she's not awake? She, lastly knew she was not awake and she was snoring. She's received two doses, at least three doses, at pet of barbitolol. They are supposed to be carrying out an execution tonight. The female has not passed away. She's not, she's unconscious not breathing normally in the execution chamber.

So they're carrying out execution tonight and subject has not passed away, starting an hour ago, not reading normally unconscious and will be in the executioner's chamber and then says on callback community by as they did carry out an execution and no code was given. They said they don't have a code and it's for the woman that's supposed to be executed but they said they don't have a code

so we're trying to figure out what's going on. How do they not have a code? Right, they should know the code, especially by this. He said it is they did try to do an execution in the field. That's what we were told by the person that called us. They never gave us code, the person that called us, because it wasn't master control

they called us. It was someone that said that they were . So we called master control, so they didn't know what we were talking about. And basically just said we don't know what you're speaking about. So our EMS assistant chief went out there. We have a fire engine in the medic stage. The EMS assistant says that they're at the gate and there's someone at the gate telling them to come in because it's like they need the EMS assistant.

ambulance and that this is the actual thing that's happening and not someone that's like swatting. They were worried about a swatting incident, but that is not at all what was happening. Krista Pike is alive. She's walking, talking, and she's, quote, mad as hell. I'll tell you he's mad as hell. That is her murder victim, teen girl Colleen's mother tonight. But, you know, straight out to Tori Gessner joining us out of National Investigated reporter anchor KWKRN who was there for the botched execution. That was the second 911 call, right?

There was a 911 call before that. Tell me about the first 911 call. The first 911 call was never really released. We did get a script for the 911 call. Essentially, Tennessee law protects people's identities to participate in execution. So that was the 911 Center's kind of explanation for why they didn't release the actual call. But someone calls from inside the prison. They say that the state has tried to execute Krista Pike. She is still alive. And they need an ambulance.

They need fire. They need all the works. Dave Mack joining us in addition to Tori Gessner from WKRN. Dave Matt Crime Stories investigative reporter. We have the original 911 call. We haven't been able to get the sand. but tell me what happened in the first 911 call because then there had to be a second 911 call. Well, Nancy, the problem on this first 911 call is the dispatcher at 911 is trying to identify the code that they need for sending an ambulance to the actual River Bend maximum security prison.

because the ambulance can be sent to the prison, but it has to be able to get inside. This is a maximum security prison. You can't just show up there with an ambulance and expect to be let in. You have to have a code to get through that gate. And they didn't have it. Apparently, whoever called 911 at that time

did not know the code, did not know what they were talking about. I get it. I get it. I get it. The first 911 call is, what's your emergency, what's the location? Response, River Bend Max. Give me a second. They give the address.

And then dispatcher, what's your code? What's your code? Caller says, I'm sorry. Boy, were they unprepared? My code for reporting an emergency? You want to know what the emergency is? No, the dispatcher says, what's the code for the location? You don't have a verification code?

I don't. All right, what's your call? back. I can't believe this. It's a cell phone. Oh, my stars. Okay, first and last name. Are you in the prison? Yes, you're a worker. Okay. Finally, they're getting somewhere. Ambulance still doesn't have a code to get inside. Caller says, we've been carrying out an execution tonight. We've administered 10 grams of pentabarbital. The person is not yet deceased. They started approximately an hour ago. And we're calling for an ambulance. Are they breathing normally? No. The breathing is very labored and slow. You know, to Mike and Jafir joining us out of Dearborn,

veteran trial lawyer, Mike, I think I know why the prison is not releasing that 911 call audio because they're woefully unprepared. Yeah. I don't know if the state of Tennessee even knows how to execute people anymore. What the person stepped down, the director of it. I mean, this is unprecedented. This is insane. I can't believe it.

They don't know how to execute a woman. So I think that they're running for cover. People are resigning. They absolutely, they could be civilly liable from her family. Look at it like this. She could actually sue the state of Tennessee for trying to execute this person who murdered somebody. I mean, it's unprecedented. You know, Mr. J.

you say execute somebody. Somebody has a name. It was a teen girl that was lured, tortured, and murdered. When she tried to run away, Krista Pike chased her with a meat cleaver and hacked her in the back. She took part in carving pentagrams, carving them on the victim's body,

then beat her head in with a chunk of asphalt so severely. Her skull shattered. And then, what did Krista Pike do, dropped to her knees and begged for forgiveness? No. She sorted through the bloody goo and extracted a piece of skull, belonging to the teen girl.

The next day, she showed it off to her. goolish friends and danced a jig. What did she do? She screamed. And screamed and screamed. I just kept hitting her and hit her and hit her. I was just looking at her and walked her brain and she rolled up and she got to try to run again and her cover her back. The big wall.

I heard somebody when they're talking to you and you had to see her little part. and I said to shut up. What the hell is wrong with me? What's wrong with her? What's wrong with everybody? And I stood at a box cutter in my head. I cut her across the throat with her. Slashed her across the throat with a box cutter.

Hacked her in the back with a meat cleaver as the little girl was trying to run away. But yet tonight, Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, and star of Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan on YouTube, tonight. She, Krista Pike, is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, walking, talking, and angry. Whoa. Tell me about the pentobarbital. Yeah, pentobarbital is a short act.

barbiturate. So people confuse it many times with phenobarbital, which is more long acting. And Nancy said that folks at home understand pentobarbital is actually one of the drugs that is used. I know you've heard this term before, a medically induced coma. It's one of the major drugs that's been used throughout the years. It's also used in the euthanasia of dogs specifically. It's not like this is something new under the sun relative to some type of agent that's foreign to everybody out there. And the way it works is that if you go to the brain stem, in the brain stem, there's an area called the medullary area. And the medulla oblongata, people have heard of that term before. This is the autonomic nervous center. This is the hub.

And so what's happening here is that pentobarbital goes into that area and drives that function down. Well, what happens? Well, they develop labored breathing. We heard about in almost a comatose state, right? snoring, this sort of thing. And sometimes these are precursors to coma, right? And so as this thing begins, as this drug, this element begins to drive down all of these responses, the individual will eventually slip into a lethal coma and then they'll stop breathing. That's how it's supposed to happen. That is, if you have venous drug delivery, which they apparently did not have in this case,

Nancy, because you've essentially got this agent free floating around in her soft tissue, in her arm. This is the ultimate nightmare scenario. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about. All in one place.

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I want to talk to you about the fact that she had this vain problem that her lawyers alerted the state of Tennessee to. She requested hanging because she had. a medical diagnosis of a vein issue. So if you try to inject something in her vein, it's probably not going to work. And interestingly, on the last death penalty, the state of Tennessee, tried to affect,

similarly, they did not have a backup vein ready. And they screwed that up too. But to tonight, to Krista Pike, Why is she walking, talking, and quote, mad as hell? Well, because this drug was slow in the uptake, Nancy. So just very brief anatomically. So we have a layer of what's called subcube fat. Anybody that's diabetic or has family members of diabetic,

they administer their insulin dose, like in their stomach. Okay, it goes into the subcube. That's the top layer, right? And then you have intramuscular, or intramuscular, which is you hear nurses and doctors say, we're going to give you this injection. I am. Just think of the most painful injection

that you like the infamous peanut butter shot. If you get this in your rear in, how much that hurts. Okay, it goes directly into the muscle. And then where it is traditionally absorbed, pentobarbital is not meant to be delivered this way. It's meant to be delivered. I hate to interrupt you,

but I don't know what you're saying. talk regular people talk why is she alive why is she walking talking and mad as hell i don't an institutional it's an institutional failure it's an institutional failure and this is why there are the elderly that are out there every single day nancy and our nurses our EMTs our doctors our technicians set up IVs on people with bad uh bad vessels every single day this is nothing new under the son. Whoever did this was a miserable failure at it and was not properly trained. I don't know what the attorney is saying about this diagnosis that she has. I am not buying it at all on any level that you're saying that incompetency, incompetency could rise to this level where you're going

to make an excuse for this. The reality is whoever did this didn't know what they were doing. And so, yeah, the attorney's going to latch on to this narrative, but the failure is an institutional failure. It's an SOP failure. That's why she's up walking and talking and be quite frank with you. That's why she's pissed off because as this drug was initially delivered, it created pain centers that began to fire. She's actually using the term saying that it feels like it's on fire. Well, that's one of the things you get in this free floating pentobarbital. It feels like you've got a little ball of fire in there.

Also, she talked about the tension around that area. Well, yeah, you've got these fluids that are pumping into an area where fluids are not meant to be. So she is going through this period of pain with this. It's a pain response. They should have known from Jump Street. They were not in a vessel, Nancy. It's a miserable failure. You were seeing video from our friends at WBIR.

I guess the rest of that question should be directed not to, Scott Morgan Death Investigator. But to Dr. Bethany Marshall joining us tonight, we're now on psychoanalyst out of the L.A. jurisdiction. You can see her on Bravo, Hulu, Peacock. She's got a hit new podcast on the couch with Dr. Bethany Marshall. And you can find her at Dr. Bethanymarshal.com. Dr. Bethany, I said, why is she walking and talking?

And Joe Scott Morgan answered that with the botched pentabarbital. injections, but angry as hell. She should be counting her blessings. She's alive. She is out of the hospital, walking, talking, cognizant, angry, talking about multi-million dollar lawsuits. Doesn't she remember Colleen, the girl she killed? Why is she, Pike, angry? Why is she, quote, mad as hell and not taking it anymore? Nancy, you just played part of the interview after she committed the original crime, the interview with the detective. And one of the things she said about Colleen Schlemer was that she was angry at her because Colleen was still talking. That's when she took the box cutter. She slashed her throat in an attempt to dehumanize her to make it easier to kill

her. So this would be consistent with Krista Pike's personality. What I think about this botch, this whole botch situation is it shows profound disrespect. for the victim and the victim's family. If not for Krista Pike, for prisoners, ethically putting people, executing them in a way that follows protocol. If not for the prisoner, do it for the family. So they don't have to go back and watch it one more time. You know, Nancy, when Colleen Schlemer's mother sat there watching Krista Pike struggle, don't

you know she probably thought of her own? daughter Colleen Schlemer struggling? Wouldn't she have had a flashback be triggered, have some kind of trauma like, oh my God, now I'm seeing what happened to my daughter right in front of me. It's not clean. It's long. It's painstaking like the many hours. Krista Pike and her buddies spent cutting, torturing, hammering, smashing the victim. So it's unfortunate that this is going to retramatize the mother in that entire family. system. She went in there thinking that justice was going to get shoved and, um, of course, Krista Pike didn't make it, didn't die. You had 31 years to do this. You had 31 years to make

sure you guys got everything in order for this day to happen and for that to stop an hour before. It just a slap in the face. That's from WVLT tonight, the specter of the electric chair, old Sparky has reared its head. What do you think when you think about the electric jet? I don't really think about that because I don't think I'm ever going to see it. I still have a lot of hope, and I know that I don't deserve to be where I'm at. What? What?

I don't deserve to be where I'm at? That's my friends at Film Rise. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. I don't deserve to be where I'm at. You mean a death row woman? Yeah, you do. Okay. Dave Mack, describe what she did to her victim,

yet she says she doesn't deserve to be there. Nancy, the shocking reality is that Christophike lured Colleen Slimmer with the thought of we're going to put our disagreements behind us, and we're going to move forward as best buddies. So Colleen Slimmer had been terrorized by Christa Pike for some time leading up to this, Nancy, and thought, okay, it's going to be great after this.

But instead, once Krista Pike gets Colleen Slimmer away from the buildings in the middle of nowhere pretty much on campus, the attack begins, taunting her physically, beating her, slashing, carving her with a box cutter, a meat cleaver. But, you know, Nancy, while she's being humiliated, dehumanized, being tortured and terrorized by Krista Pike and her friends, you realize that twice, twice Colleen Slimer was able to get up. She was fighting for her very life, Nancy, and she got up and ran, only to be tackled again by Christa Pike and brought back to the center of where they were attacking her, and the attack resumed. At one point, Christopike got so mad, she said, the b-bunk die, and I want to see her brain. It was the most disgusting, despicable thing to think about it, Nancy. The reason we know this is because Christa Pike told us what she said. did. And then after everything was done, after she has totally destroyed this young woman, she takes a piece of her skull and shows it off in the cafeteria the next day. I got her.

And you know what? The family never got that piece of skull back to put with Colleen so they could actually do something to bury this poor girl. Dave Mack, isn't it true that to further humiliate Colleen, the teen girl, they made her take all her clothes off to kill her? They did and didn't just take them off gently. They stripped her of the clothing, the clothing, Nancy. And again, remember, when she went out there, she thought this was going to be a time to put the past behind her. You know, Colleen had told her mother by phone that she was being terrorized by Krista Pike. It was so bad.

Colleen said, Mom, I want to come home. Can you imagine what Colleen's mother goes through on a daily basis because of how this girl was terrorized by Krista Pike, how Krista Pike lured her. stripped her of every piece of humanity and clothing before destroying her physically. Why is it necessary for you to be there? Because she killed my daughter, and I don't want to see another child or another person hurt like she did. It's hard. I broke down in tears. She was laying on a table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head. Has anyone apologized to you for this? No, so. Nobody apologized.

Here we are, 31 years, and you're laughing in my face again. And that's what I feel like they did. I want to think about Colleen being there and saying, thank you, Mom. I'm her voice. The criminals get so much tension. Why? She has been lost in this, and they lost a piece of her skull that we still can't find.

She's been forgotten, other than when this brought up like this. Think of her and not Christa Pike because at the end of the day, it's justice for Colleen and not just as for Krista. From our friends at First Coast News, W-H-A-S-N-W-V-L-T, that was Colleen's mother and relatives speaking on her behalf. Tonight, all the headlines are Krista Pike, alive, walking, talking, mad as hell. To Dr. Dwayne Hendricks joining us. Former Senior Warden Federal Bureau of Prisons, 30 years of experience. Now, private consultant helping correctional agencies

and author Dr. Hendricks. Why? Now we're looking at a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the state of Tennessee, against the CI Correctional Institute, against every single person that had a hand in that botched execution, it goes on and on and on.

There's going to be a movie. There's going to be a book. There's going to be a docu-series. What about Colleen? What went wrong? They've had 31 years to get it together. And now this? Yeah, we failed.

We had one job. You know, the detective did their job. The DA did their job. The jury did their job. She was sentenced to death. And unfortunately, she had been there for over 30 years waiting on this death and we failed. Obviously, the protocols didn't work. I'm not sure if they didn't practice. I mean, obviously, you know, we start with her medical history, whatever challenges

they've had to deal with, you know, go through all these things to figure out, okay, if she has a vein issue, you know, what do we do? Do we need the best phlebotomist in the state of the state to come up to do this? We fail. And, you know, it's worse than fail. That sounds like that's how's like a first grader failed on their reading exam. Boo-hoo. They just did a similar death penalty botch a few months ago with Tony Carruthers. Same thing.

Everybody needs to be fired now and figure out how the hay we're going to pay for Krista Pike's huge lawsuit. But isn't it true, Tori Gessner? Anchor investigative reporter WKRN who was there during the botched DP, that there are alternatives. There's more than just the needle. There is Hangman's Noose and Old Sparky.

Explain. Yeah, there are multiple ways to execute a person in Tennessee. What is legal is the lethal injection, at least for now, in the electric chair, as long as you've committed your crime before 1999. inmates can pick the electric chair. I've actually talked to some state lawmakers here. They are proposing banning the lethal injection. And this is coming from the Republican supermajority.

So this is a big deal. The action will likely take place. And they are considering other execution methods. They've even mentioned the firing squad. To Mike Jaffer, veteran trial lawyer, Mike, wouldn't that require that Krista Pike wave the needle? and opt for the electorate chair or the hangman's news? I can't believe she'd have options,

but I guess she would have the option of waiving the, I mean, at this point, who would dispute if she were to waive lethal injection? But that would be a trap for her, which is she'd then have to acknowledge that she remembered the event and that she was conscious of it, and that some of her constitutional rights go away at that point. I know she's a monster. She should have constitutional rights,

but at the end of the day, this kind of puts her and her attorneys in a predicament, which is if she waives anything, then she's understanding the process. She's competent to be executed again. This is a narcissistic monster who does not want to be executed, and she believes that she should not be executed. And this is her evidence in her mind that, hey, this was not meant to be. So I'm really curious to see if she waives anything or if she has any involvement going forward in what happens. Other than to say, I don't know what happened.

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Family owned and operated for 70 years. Placickea.com Kia, movement that inspires. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Back to Dr. Dwayne Hendricks, who got a little relaxed there while I was talking to Jafers. It's your turn now. Hendricks, they didn't just botch the death penalty twice, and if you include Carruthers, that's three times.

But they didn't even know how to call nine. They were calling from somebody's private cell phone who said, what's a code? Even I know what that is, and I'm a thousand miles away. That's basic one-on-one. You know, when I was an officer working control, when you call the fire department or you dial 911, you have the codes. You know, each county may have different, like a coat red would obviously be a fire. Coat blue could be a medical emergency or coat white could be having escaped. whatever that is, that person should have known that.

And that should have been a part of the protocol, because at the end of the day, we have plans for when things go wrong, a part of that protocol should have been if this fails for some reason, if we have to call 911, what if someone in the death chamber area, whether it was the family member or a member of the media had a heart attack, God forbid, during this thing? What code would have given if that would have happened, you know, based on the scenario.

So there was no excuse for what happened. I mean, the people came to see her executed. They didn't come to see a failed execution. So there is no excuse. There is no reasons. I mean, obviously when this investigation is going to do it, they will be able to determine exactly. My question is, who was the person on the phone going,

code? Oh, what was that? Dispatch was trying to be. nice. You can't just drive a vehicle into Mac's security without the right code. I think it was Larry Curley and Moe that they had in

charge that night. But they are looking at, they're looking right down the wrong end of a barrel. So you've got the electric chair, you've got the hangman's noose. Now, we know that one of the last people executed by electric chair in Florida, their head caught on fire.

So, just let's think this thing through Joe Scott Morgan, if Tennessee could not find a vein, seriously? You're going to let them be in charge of the electric chair? Yeah, particularly. And, you know, the thing about it is as ghoulish as it sounds, and I really don't care what anybody thinks, the reality is this is like a golf swing or a tennis swing. You have to have redundancy.

You have to have practice. You have to understand how it's done. And here's the thing about it, you know, 30 days prior to that. execution date being solidified Nancy they were supposed to be doing workups they had windows they had to go through for every it's accounted for every periodically over a 30-day period so the entire team that was involved in the execution knows what their job is like they even have people that understand you're gonna be on the left ankle you're gonna be on the right ankle everything

from that to phone procedures to be able to get in contact with people outside Every element is supposed to be covered here. So, yeah, now you're going to introduce the electric chair. And let's see how much success we have with that. Because I've got to tell you, it might work in other places. Hey, maybe they need to take a field trip to one's full Texas because just past weekend, they did a lethal injection. And guess what?

Nothing went wrong. The guy died. They failed miserably in this, Nancy. And it all comes down to the individuals that were. administrating this from the top down all the way. I agree with you. I think that I'm clean. Please.

They're calling from their private cell phone going, what? What's the code? Now, I was just referring to Florida's botched DP on Pedro Medina. Prison officials came out wearing protective gloves because they had to help douse flames that shot from Medina's head. So much smoke filled the death chamber. A window had to be. be opened. So,

think about it, Joe Scott Morgan. That's Florida, who has, let me just say, a certain expertise in administering the death penalty. Yeah. Tennessee? Electric chair? No way. That leaves me with Hengman's News.

Tori Gessner, isn't it true that Krista Pike originally asked to be hung? That is true, Nancy. She did ask the court to be hung and of course they denied that. But right now, hanging is not technically a legal way to execute someone in Tennessee. So the state's hands were really tied with that. Something interesting to note, you know, it wasn't just Tony Carruthers and Krista Pike that Tennessee has had issues with executing back in 2023. Tennessee was actually caught not testing the lethal injection drugs and rewrote its whole protocol spent years writing this particular protocol that they tried to carry out

with Krista Pike, with Tony Carruthers, all the other inmates from 2025 on, and you see how that turned out. Okay, there's a huge legal drama brewing. I can smell it. I can smell it a thousand miles away to Mike Jafor joining us, a veteran trial lawyer out of Dearborn. This is what I see it's shaping up. Massive lawsuits, but in addition to the lawsuits, individually against those that administered the pentobarbital, but against the jail, against the state of Tennessee, and so on and so on. A criminal issue, and that's where you come in. Many people are arguing double jeopardy. She can't be put to death now. That doesn't apply. Double jeopardy applies if you've had a trial and you were acquitted, even if you confess on top of the capital. You cannot be retried, period. So it doesn't.

doesn't apply, but cruel and unusual punishment. Wait for it. Wait for it. They're going to argue that this double dose of pentobarbitalital, that apparently pulled under her skin and did not go into her vein, hence the reddening and the swelling of the arm. They're going to claim that to put her to death now is cruel and unusual, but I think they've got a better claim, because, you know, when you want to catch a vomit, you got to think like a vomit. And that's, I think would be a better claim. And that would be for them to find an expert, and you know they can, I don't know where they're going to find him, her, under some rock somewhere, that's going to say that this failed, botched DP gave her some sort of brain damage. And therefore, if she has any sort of

infirmity, she cannot be put to death. Explain what I'm talking about. I exactly agree. That's what I thought about all days that I racked my brains about this. No double jeopardy is not going to apply. The sentence has not been carried out. The Eighth Amendment constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, but then the last part you made was the one that I was, I really, really think is going to be where they, where they win the day, which is if you have a mental infirmative, if you cannot appreciate and understand, or if you're not cognizant enough to understand what, what's happening to you with the execution, you cannot be executed.

Now, this would just be a delay. It wouldn't be like, you're done. You can never be executed, but it would be a delay. It could be an indefinite delay. So she does have that protection. So those are her two elements here, her two avenues. Constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, because this is unprecedented.

They actually proceeded with the execution. They put the injections in her. She warned them, she told them, her attorney said, Don't execute her in this way. She wants to be hung. She cannot. She has an issue with her veins. They were warned against it.

They proceeded with it. She suffered. She was almost pronounced brain dead. And so now if her attorneys can prove that she cannot. Jofford, did you just say Krista Pike was almost brain dead? Did you say that? She was almost brain dead. Yeah.

She was almost brain dead. Oh, dear gravy. Okay. Close, but no cigar. Joe Scott Morgan. she was not, you're a JD, not an MD. So let me ask you to just shut your pie hole. Just one moment, Jafar, wait for it.

Of course, I mean no disrespect. I only said that in a loving and caring way. Just Scott Morgan almost brain dead. She's walking, she's talking, and she's quote, mad as hell, talking about multimillion dollar lawsuits. That is not almost brain dead. No, it's not. And actually, I think some of her team or some in the media have actually used

the term Nancy, ready for this, miracle. Yeah, this is a real water into wine moment, right? This was not a miracle. Drag Jesus into this. You're the one doing that. Miracle, water, wine? Well, just so you understand. I think it's more akin to the dark Lord. Just so that you understand, this is not a miraculous moment. This is malfeasance in office. This is somebody that is incompetent. That's what this is. Let me give you another insight into biblical knowledge here. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. And unfortunately, unfortunately, this has happened.

They failed miserably, Nancy. And here's the thing about it. She was never near brain death. Are you kidding me? Give me a break. Because the uptake of the pentobarbital, which has to be absorbed very slowly. If it goes into the muscle, it's going to absorb quicker than if it goes into the suburbia. you fat, which none of those, neither one of those is actually a vessel. So depending upon where it

actually wound up. Now, what's happening is this is a slow rollout. Okay, so she's getting a little bit of this 10 milligram dosage. It's a total of 10 milligrams. The first, the first application was 5. The second one was 5, which is a redundant one. This is a slow rollout if they're just doing this, I am. She's not getting that, that the full force of that dosage into her. veins that takes her out. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, I want to hear your analysis of what's happening now. Mike Jaffer is giving me an expert defense attorney argument that she was, quote, almost

brain dead. Thanks, Dr. Jafor. Joe Scott is explaining physiologically, physically what happened. But Dr. Bethany Marshall, there is so much more with this woman. Mad as hell? She beat the girl's brain open with a chunk of. asphalt and thought to grab a chunk of the victim's skull and show it off. Mad as hell does not equal almost brain dead. She's angry and she's doing to file a lawsuit. She's angry and she's going to file

a lawsuit. And you know what? Who's responsible for that? The state, they had so many opportunities to perfect the protocol. You know, Nancy, everybody is calling this unprecedented. And as Joe Scott Morgan said, like a miracle, it's not unprecedented. It was predictable. Her attorneys went to court and predicted this would happen. And they did not shore up their protocols. You know, groups sometimes operate by their own moral code within their own group. And they don't think about broader society.

Whoever was in charge of this protocol and hired these people to do the execution, they were playing by their own moral code. And that's just what happened when Krista Pike chased Colleen Schlemmer into the woods, stripped her coat off, stripped her clothing off, mocked her, beat her, crushed her skull, slashed her back, slashed her throat. This little trio in the woods, they were playing by their own moral code. Now we see the state playing by its own moral code. that you just treat a prisoner with disrespect.

Well, maybe that's okay on one level. But when you treat the prisoner with disrespect, you treat the victim's families with disrespect. All of a sudden, the person on death row, their death row inmate, all of a sudden within minutes, they're now a patient at a private hospital. And then they go back to death row.

That's too much for the victim families. Somehow this whole thing has gone basest. Sackwards, Dr. Bethany. I think she should be thanking her lucky stars that she's still alive and could be looking at a commutation. Instead, she's, quote, mad as hell and wants to sue for millions of dollars. To Tori Gessner, you heard Mike Jaffer blurt out. She's almost brain dead.

Okay. She was snoring. You heard her. That is not almost brain dead. Yeah, and to be fair, Nancy, her legal team did. describe her as brain dead one day on Monday. They were about to pull the plug and then Tuesday. She wakes up. She's walking. Then she's talking. Of course, now she's been released from the hospital. She's back in prison where she was before all this happened. But yeah, we talked to some medical experts that dispute that claim that she was brain dead. She was snoring.

And eventually once the curtains closed for the final time when we were all in the witness chamber, she was consistently snoring. Just sounded like she was sleeping, really. just so bored with the whole thing. She fell asleep. What's happening next, Torrey? Well, we know Governor Bill Lee has paused all executions for the end of the year. There is a third-party review that is going to look into exactly what went wrong here. No word on how long that could take. And then a new governor is coming in in January. A gubernatorial candidate, Marsha Blackburn, has actually called for the electric chair to be brought back in Tennessee, even though it is still technically legal as long as you've committed your crime before 1999.

But we'll just have to wait and see, I mean, this could be a long process. We wait as justice unfolds and we remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff Michael Hendrix, Charleston County Sheriff, South Carolina, killed in the line of duty after just three years on the force, leaving behind a wife now widow Kayla and three little boys, American Hero, Deputy Sheriff Michael Hendricks. Thank you to our guests. but especially to you for being with us tonight. Nancy Gray's signing off, but I'll see you tomorrow night, and until then.

Good night, friends. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.