Folks, the state of Tennessee has not executed a woman in some two hundred years, and Krista Gail Pike is fighting to not be the next. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Presentz wrote, this is a story that got a lot of headlines of the end of last year because there was a date put on the books for an execution, a rare execution of a woman in Tennessee.
That's right, she was set, I say, is said, there's not Auz is said to be executed on September thirtieth of this year. But Krista Pike has now filed a lawsuit to stop her execution. She says that executing her would violate her constitutional rights and her religious beliefs. Will get into exactly how she's saying an execution would do both of those things to her. It's interesting, It's creative.
It's creative, you just said, because my next question to you, we we just we happen to cover a lot of executions in rooms. We see this thing fighting, fighting, fighting to stay alive.
Yes, attorneys will come up with all sorts of different reasons as to why their client shouldn't die, whether it they go back to the trial and find some reason why they didn't get a fair shake, or they'll go and try and find reasons why their client is not mentally stable enough to face an execution. But this woman's attorneys are claiming she has a condition and she has a religious belief that would preclude her from being executed.
Look, we've come up, and we say we've come up. They a lot of attorneys have come up with all kinds of ideas for how to save their client. We don't see necessarily robes it work that often, but sometimes it delays the process or they go through the process. This is and it shouldes.
I don't know.
Do people feel any differently in the country when we talk about execution and people have their opinions about whether we should have it or should not have it, But do we feel any differently when it comes to executing a woman.
Absolutely we do. Yes, there is something about even sending a woman to prison for the rest of their lives.
We just heard a jury this is so interesting. A juror, i should say, speak out after the last trial of Corey Ritchins and she said, we sat there in that jury room and we all came into it thinking she was guilty, but we all started talking about how possibly she might not be because the idea of sending a mother to prison for the rest of her life, the idea of taking a mother away from her children for the rest of their lives, was very It was very present in the room when they were trying to come
to the conclusion. So, yes, I do think we have an aversion as a country, as a society in punishing women for crimes because we think of them as mothers, We think of them as people who others count on, and we try not we try to. We wish for the best, we hope for the best. We don't want it to be true.
And we don't want them to be monstrous exactly. We it just doesn't work.
These are ok not to label women, but yes, we don't see we see them as nurturers. Like you said, So when stories and we have seen plenty of robes of mothers in the country, famous stories of mothers killing their children, they're shocking.
We can't we just can't it. It doesn't make sense. So here we are. I don't know. It's an interesting thing to consider.
Okay, there are possibly people out there who are Yes, I'm for the death penalty, but only as applies to men, right, is that really?
Do we really feel that differently about it?
And if there was a question about execution and it just had to do with women, would we be still in favor of it the way we are as a country. The numbers go back and forth the people who are in favor of the death penalty. But I'm just thinking about that because we don't do it often. Since nineteen seventy six, only eighteen women have been executed in this country. That's one percent of the however many that have been executed in that time. Yeah, I mean that doesn't happen
at all. No, it doesn't happen very often.
And look, I think it's because also women are not as likely to be murderers as men just period in general, statistically speaking. So yes, of course you're gonna have fewer women sentenced to death, but yes, we do.
Numbers there though, I have to do with the discrepancy of how many who end up on trial for murder, how many of them, the percentage of them who don't get the death penalty that if they were a man they might.
Oh yeah, no, that makes sense, that does make sense. That does make sense, So yes, I do think that would.
You be less likely to vote death penalty for women?
Yeah, I wouldn't be able to be on a jury. Full disclosure here, because I am against the death penalty. I wouldn't be able to send anybody to death row.
No matter who they are.
Correct. That's just where I am personally, So I would have to make that known the moment I was being questioned as a juror and they'd say thank you and next, because I just I wouldn't be able.
To sleep the defense Yeah we want her.
No, So I am somebody who who would not be able to be on that jury. I couldn't sleep at night either way. How about you?
I yeah, we've talked about it. Plaint just not a fan of this ceremony, if you will. For us, going through the process of killing somebody just feels barbaric, no matter what that crime happens to be, and there's been some horrific, horrific crimes the way I would say, if that family member went and killed that person and I was on the jury, I would do a whole agreed with it a time to kill a thing.
Where I absolutely I agree with that sentiment, and by the way would have zero problems sending someone to prison for the rest of their lives to never see the life day again, no problem there just couldn't vote to executing.
No, I'm just curious that as we were talking about if it's different with a man or woman, know it's no different for us necessarily, but only eighteen women. So ro yes, this will make headlines, Krista gail'pike. How will the country feel? Will there be a different conversation leading
up to this execution about the death penalty? And there are some actually robe there are she has as a part of her story in her case, if you not the crime, but her life leading up to the crime to where you would go, wow, you would have at you gotta take a beat to go man, this person had it bad.
It's true, and look, there are some First of all, we want to point out this is not an issue or not a case of guilt or innocence. She absolutely admits to having done this now and as actually we're going to get into we are going to hear directly from her, have a couple quotes from her that are very powerful actually about where she is now in her process of attrition and culpability it is. It's some to consider when you're hearing this case. But her crime is heinous.
This happened thirty years ago, actually more than thirty years ago, January twelfth, nineteen ninety five. But here's the deal. She was just eighteen years old. I say just eighteen years old, But when you hear what she did, it's tough to reconcile. She tortured before she murdered a nineteen year old girl. Her name was Colleen Slemmer, her romantic rival, or someone
she considered to be her romantic rival. She thought this girl had her sights on her boyfriend, so she convinces her boyfriend who's seventeen years old, and a friend to lure this young woman, this Colleen Slimmer into the woods.
And when they get her into the woods, she apparently and even bragged about this later that she cuts Slummer's throat six times with a box cutter, cut her back with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest, and then continued even as Slummer was begging her to please please stop, and eventually she killed her by throwing a large chunk of asphalt at her head, which they
believe was the fatal blow. And then get this, she has a part of her skull that she takes with her as almost a trophy and shows to folks.
A lot of people would hear those details and say, oh, yeah, this woman doesn't deserve to live. And that's understandable, that's heinus. There is no question there at all. Robes, but some of the and you've looked into and got into she had a very tough and some of her attorneys and others who are advocating for her to not be on death row, she had a history robes of just a horrific upbringing, mental illness, She had problems. Young lady had problems.
Now this is not excuse she made the choices she made, but this is part of the argument that some are putting out. This is before she's making her legal arguments, but just from a sympathetic standpoint. And eighteen, we don't that often sentence people to death who are eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old.
Yes, in fact, that exact range of age. I was surprised, just looked it up. The state of Tennessee in modern history has not executed one person, male or female, who committed their crime at the age of eighteen, nineteen or twenty. So that is significant, maybe even more so than the fact that they haven't executed a woman in two hundred years. They haven't executed anybody who committed a crime that young.
That's interesting.
I mean you think about eighteen year old, yes, think about we got a thirteen year old and a nineteen year old in the house essentially, and.
They're babies, children, they are absolute children. Dus you're a nineteen year old at least is a child. Oh no, she's a No, she is a child.
And look when you think about a child who has been abused, neglected, sexually, physically, all of that four years and you have a mental illness on top of it, and you're eighteen and I think she had just turned eighteen. Her boyfriend was seventeen. So these were kids, and again does not excuse the viciousness of the crime. But you'll hear from her and where she is now, because when
you're that young, it's not that you're not responsible. But shouldn't that be taken into consideration when you were deciding between life and death?
Well, I guess the jury did at the time. Right, this is what our system allows, and this is what justice looks like and these are the rules in that regard Robes.
I mean, have we.
Learned more since she was convicted? Have we done more research? Have we become frankly a little more averse to the death penalty? Have we become you know?
So that that is part of her attorney's argument. Are in this lawsuit among the things, they say, you literally nailed it. You nailed it. Her attorneys are arguing that if she were tried today, she would not have been sentenced to death because of her age, her mental illness at the time of the murder, and her history of sexual abuse as a young child. Period a jury would not have convicted her to death. That she would have
been convicted, but not to death. And in terms of her lawsuit, her her attorneys are saying lethal injection method violates her religious beliefs and her constitutional right because she says her execution could cause her unnecessary pain and added terror and suffering, which is a violation of the Constitution which protects everyone against cruel and unusual punishment. They claim she has a condition, okay, it's called thrombocytosis, and it can lead to unusual bleeding, and they say death by
drowning in one's own blood. So because of this condition and the lethal injection, they.
Could, yes, be problematic. Yes, do they know for sure? I mean, do they know she's going to suffer?
They say could? That is the word they used. And then they also said okay, so and that's specific to lethal injection. Then they're saying she can't request the only other approved method of dying because in the state of Tennessee, because it would violate her Buddhist beliefs. Because her Buddhist beliefs teach her that she is not allowed to participate in any process that would lead to her own death. So she can't choose the method of execution because that
would violate her Buddhist beliefs. And by the way, the only other method is electrocution. But she can't even make that pivot, she claims, because it would violate her religious beliefs. That is the foundation of their lawsuit.
Okay, so they have two basis for it, right, Yes, Okay, So her medical condition and her religious beliefs should not allow this to go forward.
Correct.
I don't know what chance she has here, but like we say, she is actually doing this a lot, a lot farther out from her execution than a lot of inmates to do.
That's true, that's our scrambling last second.
So yes, that is a very good point. They are laying the foundation now because if this doesn't work, I'm sure they'll try something else and then something else. But this Eight's response, which they just put into evidence here, they say, yeah, they have not shown in any way that lethal injection would present an unconstitutional risk to her.
And then they said the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death, and that some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution, no matter how humane. And they added, for a little fun, we wish Pike's commitment to the sanctity of life had arrived in time to save Colleen Slemmer. That shows you where they stand on her lawsuit.
How did you notice, like legal briefings and stuff are getting snarkier.
Yes, that's a really good point. Yes, so yes, the state added a little snarky comment at the end. And we should point out because we always talk about what the victim's family wants. Colleen Slemmer's mom desperately wants Pike to die, like wants her to die I'm going to give you the quote that she gave.
And the mom at this point has to be how old this was? So long?
This was thirty years ago?
Oh my goodness, I mean maybe sixty seventies at least.
Yes, at least she said. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was. I just want Krista down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting. There is no question Colleen Slummer's mom wants Krista to die, and that last week. I mean, it doesn't matter legally necessarily, but I do think it matters just to know that that is the wish of the victim.
You know it mattered that family.
I know you said legally it might not have some bearing, but it'll have a bearing if it came down to the governor deciding to sign or not sign a ford or commute or whatever the sentence.
Might be, you make a very good chance.
I was letting her view be known.
And we have have we not seen some governors taken to consideration here in the past year, Yes, and actually go with the families witches So that's pretty powerful.
Also powerful. When we come back, we're going to tell you what Krista Pike has had to say now about her crime. It's a very very I even given all the horrific details of what this woman is convicted of and has admitted to, hearing where she is now might soften your stance on what you think should happen to her.
Come September and.
Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ Presents, where we are talking about the execution of Christa Gail Pike. She is fifty years old. She is set to be executed September thirtieth for a crime she committed thirty years ago, a vicious killing of a romantic rival. She was eighteen at the time of the murder. Her victim was eighteen. And here is what Krista Pike has said one in a website that has been created by her supporter. She This was her statement that is posted on her website
by folks who don't want to see her die. She says, there is no excuse for what I did. I take full responsibility for my actions and regret everything that happened that night. I only want my situation to be looked at now through the eyes of logic instead of anger and answer the question of if I deserve to die for a crime committed by three people. She says this because her boyfriend got life in prison and the other friend who was there testified and was given probation.
The boyfriend, by the way, this just happened. He was eligible for parole last year. He ain't getting out. I mean, it's incredible to see she has an execution date set up at the same time the other guy was eligible to get the hell out of prison.
Isn't that wild? That's she was the one who did. She was the vicious acts they stood by. He lured her And look, in a lot of states, that wouldn't matter. If you're a part of a crime and someone dies in the act of that crime, you are still on the hook for murder. But so that was that, not that emotional, not that powerful. But the letter she wrote
to the Tennessee and is what moved me. She said, think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager, while mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives. I was a mentally ill eighteen year old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done, and even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life
of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and as compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime.
I hear you and you broke. I will listen to both sides who re that and say, you are full of it. You've had time, you did the crime, this was the punishment, and justice has to be carried out. I will listen to somebody else who said all of that is correct, and no matter if you think she's just doing this to save her butt or not, as a decent human and just some part pulls at your heartstring. To have some grace or some sympathy for even a person capable of pulling off as heinous of a crime.
Is that Robes. It is very difficult. Two.
I mean, Jesus did it. I guess right, So it was pretty difficult to do. But to be forgiving of someone in the face of the worst type of crime who it asks a lot of a human being Robes and certainly asks even more once you hear the statement of her mother of the victims.
Stay yes, I mean yeah, you can never put yourself in her shoes, and I could never ever pass judgment on how she feels or what she wants in terms of justice for her daughter and for the pain, the life of pain that she has had to endure missing her daughter. I totally get that. I think it's interesting though, when we've seen, especially folks on death row actually have
something of value to add. Maybe it's to other inmates, maybe it's to the lives of family members who are on the other side, who they can show as a cautionary tale, but at least offers some wisdom or some guidance to prevent other people from going down that path.
That's the other side of it. Is there value? Is there something they can still contribute should they be given the opportunity of redemption and grace and to be able to rehabilitate who they are and what they believe and who they stood for what they stood for.
You said redemption and grace. I guess for me and for a lot of people, that might be a higher bar. I'm just talking mercy.
Yeah, And that's not seem to be something we have a high tolerance for these days broke just mercy. You did what you did, but I am not going to be vengeful. I am not going to say you deserve the same. I am going to grant mercy. And I know it's not nothing to do with war and things we're seeing, but we have a mindset or an attitude or coming from the highest ranks in this country that get a lot of attention. No mercy like making a game or a joke out of killing people that we think are bad people.
It's a game.
The boats I can see the boats, all those hecks have kept posting those videos looking blowing these guys out of the water like it's fun, like it's a video game. And so we don't seem like a merciful country, quite frankly, asking for ropes. Can we extend that to anybody these days?
Just mer It doesn't look like that's going to happen for Pike, and certainly the lawsuit will follow it. But the state's response seemed to swift and fairly sound actually in terms of what she is claiming and what they are stating. And of course we will follow any ruling that may come on this, but she's got some time. There'll be other appeals, most certainly before September thirtieth. And this is the state of Tennessee. Not sure what their track record is on granting clemency to folks, but it
does happen. This is a pretty vicious crime. I think her age, the fact that she was eighteen, the fact that she was mentally ill and that has been diagnosed. Don't know if that would be of consideration by this governor, but she would be the nineteenth woman executed in modern US history. This is also interesting. I didn't realize this. There are forty eight female death row inmates in the
US right now still awaiting getting that execution date. Just for comparison's sake, men, there are about twenty one hundred men on death row right now in this country and forty eight women on death row.
It's a very low percentage. And you talk of the other.
Women who have been who have gotten the death penalty for a crime the committed at eighteen, there are there have been.
She's the fourth.
One of them was exonerated, one of them was commuted, and the other one is in California where there's a moratory im one executions. So essentially, what you're talking about eighteen year old women who committed crimes. There's only one right now who is eligible to be killed in that group since nineteen seventy six. She's the only one. Wow, She's the only one. One got cleared, one got commuted,
and one is in California. She's the only one right now who has been convicted as a woman at eighteen who's set to die.
Wow, she's the only one.
All right. Well, we will of course follow this case through again. Her execution date September thirtieth, twenty six and without everyone, We appreciate you listening to us. As always, I made me robock On behalf of TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon.