Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Christa Pike Survives Execution, Murdered Girl "Erased From Narrative"

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Christa Pike's scheduled execution, aborted after failed attempt to deliver fatal drugs.  Tennessee administered two doses of pentobarbital, but she did not die. Witnesses reported that she continued breathing and making snoring-like sounds long after the drugs were administered. She was eventually taken by ambulance to a hospital.   Subsequently reports says she is unconscious, on a ventilator, and in critical condition, with injuries to her arms associated with the attempted execution.  The state's remaining execution for 2026 and has been halted.   Joining Nancy Grace today:   Kennedy - Columinst "Daily Mail, " FOX News contributor and host of "Kennedy Saves the World"   Phil Keith - Former Chief of Police for Knoxville Police Dept Eric Faddis -  Founder of The Law Offices of Eric Faddis,  former felony prosecutor and current criminal defense and civil litigation attorney; website: EricFaddisLaw.com  Dr. Janie Lacy -  Licensed Psychotherapist and CEO of Life Counseling Solutions, Author of "How To Heal From A Toxic Relationship: A Guide To Reclaiming Your Mental Health and Happiness", Host of "Let's Talk About It with Janie Lacy” Podcast on YouTube, janielacy.com, Instagram & Facebook: @JanieLacy  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 -  Reporter WKRN, Witnessed Botched Execution of Christa Pike Dave Mack - Crime Stories investigative reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Convicted torture killer, Krista Pike survives execution. That's right. A botched death penalty. Meanwhile, the murdered girl, the teen girl, Colleen, has been erased from the entire narrative.

What do you ever hear about the teen girl? that was tortured and brutally murdered. Her throat slit. What do you ever hear about the defendant keeping a piece of the victim's skull as a souvenir of murder and showing it off to her friends? Nothing.

Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Krista Pipe, Tennessee death row inmate, convicted in the 1995 murder of her class make Colleen slimmer. After a failed lethal injection execution, Pike survives, but remains unconscious and on a ventilator.

I just kept a hit door and hit on the hit door. You are hearing Krista Pike in her own words describing the murder of a teen girl, Colleen. As Colleen's mother says, in the midst of all of the botched execution, that's right, Pike survived two lethal doses for the needle death penalty, that somehow her daughter, the murder victim, has gotten lost in the sauce. 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, sir. 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, on her voice. The criminals get so much attention. 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 Christop Heik because at the end of the day it's justice for Colleen and not justice for Krista. That from First Coast News and W-H-A-S and W-L-V-T you are hearing Colleen's mother describing the pain

she has suffered because any mention of her daughter, the murder victim in this case, has been law. lost in the narrative. Joining us now, special guest, investigative reporter WKRN. Tori Gessner is with us tonight, who was actually there in the death chamber audience at the time of the botched needle injection of Krista Pike.

Tori, thank you for being with us. What happened? Thanks for having me, Nancy. And, I mean, where do I really begin? The execution was set to start at 10 a.m. local time. We get word that there's a stay. issued in the courts. So we are waiting inside the prison for hours until around 6 p.m. We finally get word that this execution will move forward. We are taken into the witness chamber

when the medical personnel, they are inserting the IV. The media does not see that part. So the curtains were closed for almost an hour. And in that time, we heard a little whimpering and crying, but really nothing much else. Some tape unfurling and unfurling and metal clinking on metal, things like that. When the curtains finally open, we see Krista Pike lying there with her spiritual advisor by her side. She is talking, singing, smiling at some points. Then she starts yawning and eventually going into this snore. And I'm not a medical professional. A lot of people say it was agonal breathing. That is not how it sounded to me. It sounded like a consistent snore. And then the curtains suddenly close. And the media witnesses are confused because

she's very much still alive. So three minutes later, curtains reopened. The whole process gets underway again, which is incredibly rare. I've never seen that before. And then the curtains close again, and she is still consistently snoring at this point, nonstop. It really does sound like she's sleeping, but we are sitting there in that room behind the curtains for almost an hour before we are escorted out. She was singing, laughing, and talking? She was in the very beginning, yes. And I've witnessed a few other executions in Tennessee in the past. And typically it takes around 20 minutes and then it kind of looks like the person is just going to sleep. This was not the case for Krista Pike. She was still continuously talking. She's Buddhist. So her spiritual advisor was there. I'm not sure if they were doing

some type of prayer or something, but she was singing. I love you so much. I love you too. And smiling, making kind of a little bit of giddy noises at some points. But yeah, she was definitely doing that and it took a very long time and now we know that she is still very much alive. Okay, wait a minute. So what about all the torture and the arm swelling up and blistering? If she's singing, laughing and talking, that doesn't sound like she's being tortured. Well, and that's the thing. The media doesn't get to see the IV insertion. There's actually a lawsuit in Tennessee right now. A couple of media organizations are suing to be able to see the full process so we can, you know, hold the state accountable in that sense.

but I, you know, can just speak to what I saw that in the beginning, that's what she was doing. Eventually she did enter that snore and didn't come out of it and then we walked out of the room. I hear you. You were there. You heard and saw everything there was to hear and see. And you heard singing, laughing, talking, and snoring. No cries of pain. No.

Well, with. What are we left to believe, Torrey? It was a confusing reaction. When the curtains were closed, we did hear a little whimpering when the IV was going in, about twice. It was not a consistent crying or anything like that. I also witnessed Tony Carruthers' execution in May, and he was groaning, and that was louder and lasted a lot longer. Of course, doctors couldn't find his vein there, so the governor called off that execution. But in this case, Krista Pike, she, yeah, she was singing and, and, you know,

appeared smiley at some points and also something interesting to note her final words, her last statement. She said that she was planning on going out of this life in the same way that she's lived it in love. And she thanked her supporter. She said, this is a happy day. They can go celebrate her haters. She wishes them even more love because they need it. That's what she said. No mention of the victim, Colleen Slemer or her family. And of course, Slummer's mother is there watching this all happened too. What was the mom's reaction, Torrey?

Well, they keep the media witnesses separate from the victim's family. So we did not see her at all. But I mean, I can only imagine. This woman traveled from Florida to Tennessee. She talked about missing

a mortgage payment to try to be able to afford to travel to finally see her daughter's killer. Executed. Of course, it didn't go the way it was planned. There were moments where she lifted her head and kind of opened her mouth.

No sound came out. That was the only real big movement that we saw. We also saw her kind of fluttering her feet. I didn't know if that was because she was giddy or what, but maybe just uncomfortable. I'm not sure. But she was fluttering her feet so much that the sheet started falling and someone did have to pick it up and put it back over her. For those of you just joining us with us tonight, Tori Gessner, investigative reporter WKRN. Tori, for clarification, what exactly did you see and hear starting at the beginning? So after that long waiting period to get, you know, when we were waiting for the courts to figure everything out, we are taken into the witness chamber. It's a cinder block room. There are a couple rows of chairs. It kind of looks like the movies, if you can imagine, an execution scene,

except for the execution part looks nothing like the movies. It's very, very different. But that's kind of the scene setting looks just like that on your screen. And we are waiting there behind the curtains for almost an hour. In that time, we hear metal on metal clanking, some tape unraveling. You know, Krista Pike's hands were taped down to the gurney. And we hear two spurts of whimpering. And the curtains finally open. We see Krista Pike lying there. She's in kind of a yellowish jumpsuit with a sheet over her, the majority of her body. Her spiritual advisor is standing by her head, comforting her, I guess, praying or chanting and singing. And she is, yeah, she's talking throughout this.

She even looks at one point. She can't see through the glass. It's kind of a mirrored reflective glass, but she looks straight at the media witnesses or where the media witnesses were and said, I am wishing you peace and happiness as well, the people behind the curtains, the people behind the glass.

Of course, she didn't mention Colleen Slemer, her victim. But yeah, it was an interesting experience. and unlike any other execution I've ever seen. Tori, were there medical personnel physically there adjacent to her, or was it the corrections individuals? Was the physician actually in the suite with her when this was going down? That's a good question.

From what we understand with the protocol, yes, a physician is on site as well as an IV team, but the media never sees that. What we see is in the room. There are two men in black suits. We don't know if they are T, DOC, employees or medical professionals, but they never interact or touch the inmate at all. And then there's a spiritual advisor and the inmate. That is it. And I think part of the reason the curtains are closed when

the IV is going in is to protect the medical personnel and the doctor's identities. Some of those identities have come out anyway, but we never see medical personnel. But they are there supposedly on scene. Joining us an all-star panel, but first, I want to go straight out to Phil Keith, the former Chief of Police for Knoxville PD, was the Chief when Krista Pike brutally tortured and slaughtered Colleen Slammer. Okay, Phil, thank you for being with us, Chief. Could you just give everybody a refresher on what happened to teen girl Colleen? Well, on January the 11th, Pike had told her friends at least one, if not two or three, that she intended to kill Colleen. Then on January 12th, she carried that execution out sometime between 8, 15, and 9.30.

It was an incredible crime scene. Colleen was not recognizable. created, you know, all kinds of issues, both immediately at the crime scene and then later on in trial testimony that Maude Martinez had to listen to. But it was a horrific crime scene. She'd been cut across her throat, her back. I watched the interview between Randy York and Pike. And it was just incredible. I mean, you heard the voices, but seeing her show and over. remorse and Chip was no different. The co-conspirator there in that murder case, he actually fell asleep during the interview. So there was just no remorse, but the scene felt the blood. You could see where there had been a struggle and it took, you know,

Pike in Chip to hold her down, get her back under control and continue to torture. And this went on for at least 30 minutes, more likely an hour. when you start looking at the medical examiner's report, it talks about several blows to the head with that asphalt that was broken up nearby. But you could see in the crime scene where the scuffle had taken place and where there were scraped marks and the crime scene itself expanded quite a bit, pools of blood. And this was an agonizing death.

This wasn't over with like a typical gunshot homicide. This prolonged torture was just beyond comprehension that a human could do that to another human. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about all in one place. And it's free. High heart radio.

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Okay. I want to hear how was this child? this teen girl. By the way, some of that video from our friends at WBIR, how was she tortured? I know that Pike beat her with a chunk of asphalt. Her neck was slit. And Chief, what was the motive? Why pick out Colleen, a little teen girl? Well, the motive, according to Pike, and she conjured this up, is that it was a love triangle. There's been no evidence to cooperate make that statement by Pike. Even ship said there was no relationship.

So she just, the name of force murdered Colleen. She told the friend that she just wanted to be mean. And as I've described her before, she was pure evil. When she got Colleen to the site, which was a remote area of the University of Tennessee Ag campus. She, she hit her in the head with her knee, pulled her head down to her knee several times. Once she was on the ground, she was banging her head. There was a concrete service. She was banging her head on that surface. All this time, Colleen was begging to be let go. She promised that she

would not say anything that she would walk back to Florida to avoid any more harm. But that was just the beginning. This one on, you know, the medical examiner identified at least seven cuts across the neck, cuts in the back, beating, kicking. And then the fatal blows came from ship and pike with the asphalt parts. And it wasn't just one strike. It was multiple strikes. Oh, cool. The crime seems horrific. It's just hard for me to take in, Chief. Guys, you were hearing Phil Keith, he was the chief of police at the time. Colleen was murdered. A teen girl. Lured

to a spot, a remote spot, then tortured brutally by Pike and a co-conspirator. Both of them beating the girl, cutting her, slicing her, holding her down as she desperately tried to get away.

All the while, Colleen's mother having no idea her daughter was being murdered. The scene, one of the bloody scenes that the Knoxville PD have ever seen. There were pools and pools of blood. And Chief Phil Keith, isn't it true that Krista Pike then took a fragment of Colleen's skull and showed it off to her friends laughing and even doing a little jig, dancing around, holding it, showing off her souvenir, her memento of murdering a little girl.

That's correct. She showed it off to several of her classmates. We interviewed a number of the classmates. Only a couple of them actually admitted to seeing the skull. But when in the reconstruction phase of the trial, the skull piece that was in Pike. possession fit precisely in the skull fracture of colony. It was horrific.

And I heard the mother state feel that it was mate Martinez stating that even till the very end, Krista Pike has been on death row getting three hots and a cot for 31 years. Even at the end, she says Krista Pike was laughing in her face. again, she says that a piece of her daughter's skull was lost and never recovered. Is that true? Well, we did recover the big piece, and May had to struggle to even get that to bring the closure to the burial of her daughter, and that took several years, unfortunately. I was offered a plea deal. My attorney pulled me, They're offering you life without parole.

But if you go to trial, this is the worst thing they're going to give you. Because there's no way a jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, is going to put a pretty little white girl in the electric chair. She went in there thinking that justice was going to get shoved. And, 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.

Well, she's absolutely right. 31 years to get it straight and rutro. That's why I'm criminally obsessed on YouTube and our friends at WVLT. Straight out to Joe Scott Morgan joining us, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University. He is the star of body bags with Joe Sky Morgan on YouTube. But more important, he is a death investigator with over 10,000 death scenes under his belt. What went wrong? How do you botch two lethal injections?

Apparently seven needles were brought in. One was actually bent. What happened, Joe Scott? It's almost as if they went off the street and said, hey, you guys want to come in and aid with an execution? Because I've got to tell you, this is one of the most unprofessional things. Let's get off of talking about whether the death penalty is right or wrong. What's right or wrong is knowing what your job is, Nancy.

And just so people understand this, State to Tennessee has like a 30-day period where they have to go through certain windows of training to train up in order to do this. So when you add what you had said to the equation about the seven needles, one of them was bent at a 90 degree angle, you've got 30 days to get ready to knock the rust off, understand what your job is, and you cannot get it done. And to make matters worse, Nancy, this is in the wake of a previous botched execution back this past spring where they couldn't get another line in. How can you not make this work? How do you not understand it? I don't want to hear all the stuff about, well, she dehydrated herself and yada, yada, yeah. Do you realize how many medical professionals have to put in IV lines every single day? And we're talking about older, older people that do, in fact, have collapsed vessels, yet they get the job done.

These needles wound up going into an area that's referred to as like the interstitial tissue. That's that area around the vessels or into the subcube fat. I'm curious about this jamming of the needle in there so, so desperately that it bends at a 90 degree angle. They went down to bone. Are you kidding me? Because when these IVs are set up, Nancy, they go in at a very, very low angle. Any people out there ever had my IVs inserted? You know how it's not like a straight down jab.

You're trying to hit the vessel going in at a very shallow angle. How could you screw this up to this point? So yeah, she's complaining. She's complaining about it. It feels like her arm's going to explode. Do you know why? Because the solution that they're pumping into her, the pentobarbital, is going in to that area that is not serviced by vessels.

It's kind of swelling in there, sitting in there. And eventually, you wind up with what you have right now where she's in a vegetative state because this stuff was essentially absorbed over a period of time. It knocks down your respiratory system. And also it's going to impact the brain. Did you know pentabarbital is like, number one drug, Nancy, that's used to euthanize dogs. You could have gotten a veterinarian. They would have done a very efficient job here. At this hour, is the governor set to commute

Pike's death sentence? The Tennessee prison commissioner resigns after the botched lethal injection. Pike's room is being heavily guarded by law enforcement at the hospital. Batched executions. Two of them in Tennessee, in the same year, same doctor. What is wrong? The sister of the lastville execution filed a complaint against Dr. Mark Fowler. Where does this leave the case? And back to you, Joe Scott Morgan joining us, question. After all of the injections, after a bent needle, Krista Pike is still alive?

but in what condition? Yeah, she's alive, if you want to put it that way. She's on a vent, and she's now vent-dependent. How are they going to wean her off of this at this point in time? You know, what we still haven't heard is one of the things they do is we do, or the medical community does the EEG, where you're looking for brain activity, and there are other tests that they rely on as well.

So this is actually impacted her motor systems, Nancy. she is dependent upon a ventilator to stay alive. Ergo, she is dependent upon the state of Tennessee because they botched this execution. She's depended upon them to stay alive. So when it comes down to it, and this is a fascinating legal part here, Nancy, who has the authority to pull the plug on her? What if they say that, well, she's in an unrecoverable flat spin? Because it's my understanding, her parents are both dead. She's a warded the state. Does the state say, yeah, we're going to unplug her?

So this is kind of a passive execution, if you will. An anesthesiologist retained as a medical expert by Krista Pike's defense says the execution drug, phenobarbital used, may have leaked into tissue surrounding her veins, causing significant burns. Quote, upon arrival, both her arms were swollen, burned, and blistered. Joe Scott, interpret. Yeah, absolutely. You're not meant to have this agent free floating in your interstitial area around your muscle tissue.

So yeah, that's one of the reasons that she's feeling this burning. She's complaining of it at that point in time. And also, Nancy, if you can imagine, she's got this indwelling swelling that is occurring at this point in time through this process. The body is trying to, you know, ward this off in some way. the body's responding, the pain centers are firing, it's saying this is not supposed to be here. That's why you hear her, at least they're saying,

you hear her complaining about this. And then she goes into the labor breathing, which means she slips off into a coma or an unconscious state, which you kind of expect, but it took longer than normal. And then because of where they applied this agent, Nancy, and it's free floating in there, you don't get that pop that you get

with an actual intravenous injection. Now it has to slowly absorb now. And the body is also trying to metabolize this crap out of her body as well. So what you have left is someone in a vegetative state. Joining us now, we're now a defense attorney, founder of law offices of Eric Fattis. Fattis is with us tonight. Eric, now we are understanding that the death penalty may be vacated. Under the law, what should happen now?

not what you in your dream world think should happen, but under the law. Sure. So I think what we're going to see, Nancy, are a number of filings from the defense, including a competency motion. You know, in order for the government to execute somebody, we don't execute developmentally disabled folks, for example, you've got to be constitutionally competent in order to be executed. And so I think they're going to file a motion under that sort of theory to try to prevent this.

In addition to that, there's going to be a new. as applied Eighth Amendment cruel and usual punishment motion coming down the pike. No question about that. Further, could there be civil liability on behalf of Tennessee government officials for this botched execution? So so many legal issues swirling around this new development in this case. To Dr. Janie Lacey joining us, licensed psychotherapist, CEO Life Counseling Solutions, author of How to Hill from a Toxic Relationship, and she's the star of Let's Talk About It with Janie Lacey. Dr. Janie, thank you for being with us. What does this do to Colleen, the victim's family? You know, she's in the hospital, the state's investigating it. So it puts the family right back into limbo.

And what I think about, when I think about this family, Nancy, is this is what I would say to them, is to not let this, their healing depend on what's happening with the state. And I say that with great tenderness because this family was promised and ending. and it didn't get one. Her granddaughter, from what I understand, says that, you know, May went days without eating, and this, to me, is the body's in stock. So the first thing they need has nothing to do with the courts, in my opinion. They need people around them.

They need food. They need sleep. And somebody who will just sit with them. And then the second thing, I think, is harder. For three decades, closure has been something that was going to be handed to them by someone else. And what I've learned in my office and in my own family is that closure almost never arrives from the outside. A verdict doesn't bring it.

A sentence doesn't bring it. It comes from deciding how you're going to carry the person you lost. So they can keep fighting for justice, but start living again. They don't have to wait for one or the other. I mean, Colleen was a girl who volunteered with Special Olympics, and that's who they get to keep Nancy. I'm highly disappointed along with Tennesseans about what? what happened. Therefore, the last scheduled execution for this year will not take place. Tennesseans deserve a justice system that's fair, that's consistent, that is faithfully administered.

This is a tragedy. There is no one that wanted what happened last night to happen. It shouldn't have happened. What exactly did you do? And she said, whatever? he told you I did. And I said, well, he told me you cut the girl's throat. The girl died. And she said, that's true. And you're the one that did it.

And she said, yes, Mom, I did it. What do you think when you think about the electric chair? 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. WVLT, Fox and Filmarized True Crime. After 31 years following the murder of a teen girl, Colleen Slimmer, how did the execution, is needle injection?

How did it go wrong? Law enforcement did their job, did a good investigation, gathered facts. The prosecutor did their job. The judges did their job, although at times seems perplexing. And then when it gets time to kill them, out the execution, it's botched. Just the hysteria that will go on now when the state legislature reconvenes in January, that you've had two consecutive botched executions administered by the same doctor. There needs to be consequences for this. They went through two rounds and she was still

breathing at the end. It was very ragged. She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point. she said that she said that there was a spot that was burning and hurting and asked if that was normal. WVLT and WBIR while no one advocates

torturing a defendant even a defendant that tortured someone else, a teen girl, even a defendant that slit her throat that carved her body that beat her in the head with asphalt still under

our jurisprudence, no defendant or suspect is to ever be tortured. That is not part of our jurisprudence. But seemingly, that is what happened to Krista Pike, no matter if you believe she should or should not get the death penalty. Torture is not an aspect of the death penalty to Phil Keith. She reportedly requested hanging. But got the needle. Well, she knew that wasn't an option that was legally on the table, so that's just more of the drama that Pikes played for 31 years. And sadly, this is not the first time an execution has been botched in the same jurisdiction in the same year. The Tennessee Department of Correction botched an attempted execution of our client, Tony Carruthers. They subjected him to over

an hour and a half of torture. As incompetent medical personnel attempted to place an IV line, they poked and poked and poked him more than a dozen times in his arms, his hands, his feet, and his chest. Dr. Fowler is getting ready to try to insert the central line in Tony's chest. He gets his scalpel and he starts pressing and he says, can you feel that? And Tony says, It hurts. It hurts. And the doctor says, it's just pressure. And he cuts him. And y'all that were out there heard the moaning and the groaning.

And I saw the blood and the puncture wound. And he couldn't get it in. That from WZTV to Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator. There is nothing pretty about the death penalty, nor is there anything pretty about murdering 18. girl. But you'd think after the botched execution of Tony Carruthers, they'd get it right. Yeah, you would think so. And keep in mind back in 2025, you know, South Carolina had a botched one with a firing squad their first time out. They actually missed the heart. We had trouble

here in Alabama relative to nitrogen execution methodologies, the first time out of the box. And the problem is, Nancy, is that they're a lot of. And the problem is, Nancy, is that they're is no defined system in which this works because this thing gets repeated, rinse, wash, repeat relative to cruel and unusual. Then you couple that with, well, as the attorney mentioned just a moment ago in the clip, incompetency, absolute incompetency. This is one of the basic level things that people learn in medicine when they're being taught how to insert an IV. Nursing students do this every day. We've got them here at Jack State that are I'm learning how to insert a central line or an IV line into the arm or the back of the hand.

This is really basic stuff. And they're incapable of doing this. This is your delivery method, Nancy. Just think about it if it was a guillotine. Are you going to have a blade that has a blunted edge on it? Are you going to have a firing squad that's merely, you know, shooting blanks? No, you're not. This is the delivery method.

This is what the state has chosen. and this is what they're saying is in fact the best. And this thing is turned into a total train wreck. And let me throw out one more thing if you like that. For everybody that is pro-capital punishment, I'm not making judgments either way. But if you want to see the death penalty in America die, keep on having a couple of these along the way. And it will be totally eradicated because it goes to this idea that you guys in the law always talk about.

And that's cruel and unusual. This record is. Miley is having a moment, new name, new album, two exclusive shows. So IHart Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood Pole. Lights, hotel, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Listen to IHart new music for 10 minutes a day on the IHart Radio app. And click enter.

Every day you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joining us right now is a special guest from Dailymail.com, Lisa Kennedy, who wrote an amazing article for the Daily Mail. You can find it at Dailymail.com. Kennedy, thank you for being with us. The banner of your article caught my eye immediately. It says, hell isn't torture enough for Pike after the satanic ritual she performed on 18 girl. Explain your thinking. I just want to make it very clear to people. People like me who are opposed to the death penalty for political and moral reasons, we are not squishy, we are not soft.

We understand the gravity of this crime and how horrific and heinous it is. And we don't want people to forget the name Colleen Slimmer. Because of the botched execution, people will always remember Krista Pike, which is very unfortunate. it, but we don't want them to lose sight of the horrificness of this crime. And I also believe that hell is awaiting her. And in some ways, the death penalty, even though it's been 30 years, it's the easy way out for someone like Krista Pike because it allows her to get so much more attention and specials and documentaries.

And there's so much ink spilled in addition to the blood that she's spills. build that it leads to the injustice. And I feel for her mother. I understand, you know, no one can understand what her mother has gone through. But I can only imagine wanting to hasten this woman's journey into hell. And that is the only person's opinion we should consider when we're talking about the death penalty. It should not be vengeance for the rest of the. of us, this is not the Roman Coliseum. And if Krista Pike could toil in obscurity, even as a

vegetable for the rest of her life, that would be a better process for us as a society. And I know I don't hold a popular opinion. I get that. But that's, you know, sometimes you have to hold steady to your beliefs as lonely as they might be. Kennedy, I respect you. I read all your articles. I love watching you on Fox. I love Kennedy Saves the World. But the question I asked was, what about the murder of Colleen Slimmer made you put in that article I read on Daily Mail.com? hell is not torture enough. That's what I asked before you began telling me what's wrong with the death penalty. Okay.

Yeah. But that was the basis to the article. Why is not torture enough? Because the hatred I feel for this woman is difficult to express in words. And I am a believer. and I very strongly believe that the appropriate pain and reckoning will be metered out to her in the afterlife. Was it the part when you wrote Slimmer begged Krista Pike and her boyfriend to let her live, that they were armed with a box cutter and a meat cleaver, a meat cleaver that Krista Pike used

to slash the girl, the teen girl, Colleen, in the back. It sounds like a horror movie, not a funny horror movie, but a true horror movie, where the victim tries to run for their life, and the devil slashes them in the back with a meat cleaver.

You wrote about that in your article, but somehow, today, your anti-death penalty. Was that one of the facts? No, anti-death penalty in the article, Nancy, that's, all of this is taken into account. And I was, I was against a death penalty before I read about this case. I was against a death penalty before I wrote about it for Daily Mail. I was against it before I talked about it on outnumbered and, uh, on Gutfeld.

And I, the facts of this case will not automatically make me go, oh, yeah, well, we should tear Krista Pike, limb from limb. and watch her suffer slowly. I don't advocate that. But again, you brought up facts in your article that made you state, hell isn't torture enough. And I'm assuming one of those is Krista Pike chasing her teen victim with a meat cleaver. Yeah, these are very, it is a very brutal, vicious murder. It is something that makes you realize that they are human beings who walk this earth who are truly evil and incapable.

of being rehabilitated. And I don't think that's a point with someone like Krista Pike. I think that, you know, it's like I was talking to Glenn Jacobs, who is the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, where this murder happened. And, you know, he agreed with me that for people like Krista Pike, and instead of, you know, glowing documentaries and pieces about them from these, you know, pro-

murder activists, maybe we should reinstate hard labor. You mentioned in your article that a pentagram was carved into Colleen's skin as part of the torture before her throat was sliced. Yeah, her forehead and her chest. While she was still alive, a satanic pentagram was carved into her skin, not once. but twice. What is your understanding, Kennedy, as to what happened during the botched lethal injection? I think she did what Tony Carruthers did a few months before her in Tennessee, where they only administer pentobarbital. I think she starved herself and she dehydrated herself

to collapse her veins because the Tony Carruthers, they couldn't even, find a central line. They could not insert a central line rather to administer the drug. So they just called off the execution entirely. And so I think the same thing happened with her and her lawyers had talked about that in a pre-execution hearing that for some reason she had so many problems with her veins that they would have a hard time finding one. At one point, she had, She asked if she could be hanged instead of given the lethal injection. Obviously, the lethal injection protocol is flawed. And, you know, this is one of the reasons I'm against the death penalty is because you can find no more concentration of incompetence than in the government.

Well, with that tonight, I agree with Lisa Kennedy. Kennedy, thank you so much for being with us. and again, everyone, let me direct you to her article in the Daily Mail. Quote, Hell isn't torturing enough for Krista Pike. Read every sickening detail of her hour-long satanic slaughter. And then she finishes with, but here's why she still shouldn't be executed.

Not only that, you can see her on Fox, and she's the host of Kennedy Saves the World. Tori Gessner, WKRN, what now? We understand the death penalty may be vacated. People are resigning. There may be a moratorium on the death penalty in that jurisdiction. What's happening? Lots of developments, Nancy. The governor initially paused all executions for the rest of the year. There was just one set for December. That's also the end of his term. The T-Doc commissioner has resigned. He resigned over the weekend, stepped down from his position. Of course, he was hired to fix all of Tennessee's execution issues. And we see how, how, how, that turned out. Also, a former U.S. attorney, Ed Stanton, is now leading a third-party investigation into exactly what happened. That could take a very long time before we get any answers, though.

And then as far as we know, Krista Pike is still unconscious on a ventilator in the hospital, receiving life-saving care. We wait as justice unfolds. And we remember an American hero, police officer, Dallas Hinton, Thomas Ford, P.D., Alabama, just 25. killed in the line of duty after two years on the force, leaving behind his fiancé Brandy, American hero, Officer Dallas Hinton. Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for being with us tonight. Nancy Gray signing off for tonight, but I'll see you tomorrow night, and until then. Good night, friend.

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