!!BREAKING!! Christa Pike Execution Stopped One Hour Before Lethal Injection

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency. It does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going. They are playing y'all for foes. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast. Oh, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, the folks, it is Wednesday, September 30th. And we have a breaking news update. A court has stepped in and stopped today's planned execution of Christa Pike, who was set to be the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in some 200 years. Welcome everybody. Through Amy and TJ Robs, we did not see this when coming. But as of this recording, Christa Pike was supposed to be put to death about 10 minutes from now.

1:04It's not going to happen. No, and this all came down about an hour before she was scheduled to die in Nashville, Tennessee. All of her options had been exhausted. The Supreme Court denied hearing the case. The Tennessee Supreme Court had already denied her appeal. And so the governor himself had already said, I am not going to intervene. So we did not see this coming. And frankly, this is quite a shock. Robs, this is stunning. All right, take, take the history out of it. Take the fact that it's a woman. Take all of that out of it. We just don't see this a lot. Robs courts don't step in and stop executions. We know this because we covered damn there all of them. And Robs, what would you say? 10% maybe 15%? One out of 10 maybe we could get that it stopped. Robs, that part of it is just shocking that they were successful in any way. Especially if the Supreme Court said no.

2:04Yes, because usually when we do see some sort of intervention, it comes from the governor. It doesn't typically come from the US Court of Appeals for the sixth circuit. And yes, they an hour before she was set to die, they halted her execution, quote, until further order of this court. Okay, so I have, okay, I've tracked this down. Now I have there, and folks, this is just happening. We hopped immediately on, but I do have the quarter of appeals. They're documented, at least what they issued here, but Robs, what the argument has been, what the, at least in public. A lot of her supporters have been arguing that she should not be put to death because of her sexual abuse history. Correct. And they claim, and this is true. This has all been acknowledged, even by the state of Tennessee and the prosecutor's office, that the extensive, extensive sexual abuse that she suffered starting when she was a toddler up until literally months before she committed this murder were egregious and overwhelming

3:08and the jury never got to hear it. And if they had heard what she had lived through as a child and as a young teen, they almost assuredly would not have sentenced her to death, given her age, given her history of abuse. If those things had been considered by the jury, her attorneys have been arguing they would never have sentenced her to death. Okay, that is one argument makes sense. The others, just one I had not heard before, Robs, is this idea of cruel and unusual and a revictimization if she is strapped to that gurney. Yes, she, her advocates, and she had dozens of women advocate groups who represent victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. And they have said that literally the act of her being strapped down by prison guards and injected with this lethal injection near her groin, I believe they said, would be as if she were being raped all over again. And this time by the government, by the very organization that let her down,

4:12that didn't protect her from her abusers. And so this would just be a final act of cruelty and that was their argument. Okay, so that argument that they were making in public Robs and appealing to the governor and whatnot, her attorneys took that same argument to court, to this appellate court, and it looks like the appellate court agreed. So, folks, what took place is that they were arguing that the state Robs didn't acknowledge. They said she was just lying when she was talking about her sexual abuse before. There is no evidence of this. You're just making this up to try to get yourself some sympathy in court. That is what they were saying to her. The court has since, or the state has since acknowledged, yes, she did suffer some horrific sexual abuse. Robs, I'm looking now at this finding or at least this ruling from the appellate court. They are acknowledging that very thing.

5:14Quote. She states that the state recently reversed its litigation position that she is a liar, who fabricated sexual abuse. Pike contains that the state's concession of her history of child sexual abuse and rape erodes the foundation of her state and court proceedings. She ties this erosion to defects in the federal court proceedings. And so therefore, they go on to say to adequately address and resolve the issues now presented to this court and in carefully balancing the equities, we find that a stay of Pike's execution is necessary. Robs, they're saying, yeah, you guys took a different position now. Now you're saying she was sexual abused. Now we got to talk this out. Wow. I mean, it is stunning.

6:14And we were, I mean, it's interesting that the Supreme Court did not take this up. It's interesting that the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected this. But suddenly, this federal appeals court has sided with Christophe Pike. She finally got a court to agree with her line of reasoning. But I mean, when you had all the other courts and the governor refusing to listen, refusing to acknowledge at least their point of view or point of reference that this would cause cruel and unusual punishment or pain, this is not what we expected to hear today. Robs, we are in full disclosure here, people. We were making plans for the day because we thought it was okay for us to be away from our computers, away from the microphones because there's not going to be a development in the Christophe Pike case. The Supreme Robs, anytime we hear that the Supreme Court has turned somebody down, there's nothing else to talk about. And the governor has said now publicly, he is not going to intervene.

7:15So he was not going to give her clemency. So we, the two entities that you would expect some sort of stay of execution from had already spoken out and spoken loudly and said, we ain't going to jump in and change anything. So yeah, we had no reason to believe that she had a shot at having her execution state. And that's probably why Robs, this is sitting so shockingly is because when the governor came out ahead of time, oftentimes, well, I say oftentimes a lot of them are out of Florida and we were never on the edge of our seat waiting for the phone or ring and Florida. But other states, right, you go up to that last minute, they literally do wait for the phone to ring. Rob, I can't remember which state it was. It might have been Illinois, Indiana. There was recently in the past couple of years, a guy, the phone rang. They were right up to the last minute kind of a thing. Robs, we just thought there was no chance. There was nothing to talk about. Even the argument that they were making is not necessarily one we'd heard before. Not necessarily one about revictimizing her in the strap to the gurney.

8:18And here we are, Robs. What happens now, legally with this case, because the court just says, stop everything until we tell you to do something else. We got to talk this through how much time now that she gets. It's unclear. Again, no one was planning for this to be the next course of action. And so there's going to have to be obviously some hearings and you know how this sort of situation takes place. It's going to take time. She's gotten more time. But Robs with this, if you had to put money on it on CalShi, right? Robs, I don't know if her execution will ever go forward. I don't either. Because there's now, there was already a push to stop it. It has been stopped. So now you're going to have to have people out there pushing publicly to say she should die. Well, Colleen Slammer's mom is going to be among them. But I'm saying, but the point I'm making is that it's hard to get people on board the drumbeat of kill somebody.

9:20It's hard to have a public push, kill this woman who went through all this sexual abuse. Robs, now that this is stopped, I don't know how they could start it up again. I agree with you. You know, I forget it. Just leaving prison the rest of her life and leaving it at that. Who is going to fight now to kill her? Short of the victims family. Robs, let's have a big advocacy group. Who's going to come support this family with rallies to say, yes, kill her, kill her, kill her? I mean, I guess she was going to be the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee since 1819. More than 200 years. This was already going to be a major moment in that state's history. And certainly in our country as well, we have 45 women on death row right now in this country. None of them have execution dates. Including now, Christopher Pike. She had one just got canceled. Robs, I do not, the governor is not going to come out and hoot and holler.

10:22Yep, let's kill her. You have to now come out and publicly advocate for executing a woman. This is not something that this country does. Before this, the last one was in 2021. I think I have that right before that was 2015 before that was 2014. The last one though, we do have to add this row, 2023, a transgender woman was executed. But the death warrant was had his name when he was convicted on it. But okay, we're not going to have that fight. What I'm saying, Robs, it's been a while. We don't do this often. There are no women and I don't know when we will do so again to your points. They hear folks. There is another woman to be concerned about in Nashville right now. That is the mother of the victim who has been waiting 30 years for this day. And she just like us found out that this execution is off.

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14:28Welcome back to Amy and TJ. This is a breaking episode that we were not expecting to record because we just learn within an hour. Some have even reported within minutes of Christa Pikes scheduled execution in Tennessee. A federal appeals court has stopped her execution. They want to hear more about the arguments her attorneys have been making about this being cruel and unusual. This type of punishment, this execution given her long history with sexual abuse. She began being sexually abused as a toddler. The state had previously said she was making it up, but recently acknowledged that that was in fact true. And that was the game changer for this appeals court ruling. Yeah, we need to talk it out. We need to hear it out. You the state you've already changed your position. And you said you now believe she was she was sexually abused. So all right, that that would have factored in that would have made a difference. Let's talk it out.

15:29Okay, but their argument here, Robe's in court is not the one about cruel and unusual. It's a matter of the actual trial. This should have been something for the jury to consider. Robe's that is a different can of worms. Yes, absolutely. And so look, all of the back and forth that have been going on. The advocacy groups that were speaking on her behalf. When we heard from the governor, when we heard from the Supreme Court, everyone pretty much believed that this was going to go on as scheduled. Even Chris to pie herself. She wrote a letter. She she by the way, waved her right to a final meal. She said she didn't want one. So think about this last night. She's preparing to die this morning. She wrote a letter to NBC News that her spiritual advisor shared saying whether my clemency is granted or not, I'm at peace. I'm not afraid to die. I'm only nervous about the process. Look, she's never denied murdering Colleen Slammer. But she has been saying loudly that she was worried about how she would feel.

16:31Having men, male guards, male workers with the prison, strap her down and actually execute her that she was very concerned about how that was going to feel and what that was going to be like. That was where she was this morning when she woke up. We've seen some of these that was I can't remember which guy it was, but he had like three, four, five different execution days. She woke up this morning thinking it was her last day on earth. And now she doesn't know which one would be her last. Robes a. I don't that argument they're making is just not one I have heard. But I think that is the one that the Supreme Court didn't buy. That's the one that previous courts have not bought this idea that that's cruel and unusual. So this other argument seems to have worked. The argument works. What what what is that? Robes we do on these moments. We forget we stop. It's all about Christophe. She's not just a Pike saving her how comfortable is she she going to be okay when to make sure she doesn't feel traumatized when she gets a last meal.

17:36What are her last words? Do we have a pastor in there? I get that babe. What about Colleen's mama? Colleen's family. Yeah. What about that family right now in the concern for a woman who had to have a go fund me. Set up just to give her traveling expenses so she could make it to Nashville. Yes. That woman has been waiting. Rose May Martinez and her husband Raoul. Yes. They actually raised more than $2,500 on a go fund me campaign to travel to Nashville to be there for Christa Pikes execution. They wanted to be there after 30 years of carrying the loss of her daughter. She shouldn't have to worry about whether she can afford to be there. That was what was posted launching this go fund me page and certainly we have heard from May over the years. Absolutely saying that they want to see. They want to see Christa Pike pay for their daughter's murder. They want to see this final bit of justice.

18:36They want it resolved. It's been 30 years. They said they wanted their daughter relieved. That's kind of how they put it that they just felt like she couldn't be at peace. They couldn't be at peace until Christa Pike paid the ultimate price for murdering their child. And it won't happen, baby. And I would argue it will never happen. We talk about plenty of times about the years. I think it's cruel and unusual to have somebody sit and wait 20, 30, 40 years to die. It's cruel and unusual to make a family. Wait 20, 30, 40 years for the justice that you say they deserve. Robes all of this is wrong, but Bro, we talk about how Christa Pike woke up this morning thinking it was going to be the last day of her life. What relief does she possibly now feel? What did Pauline Stimmer's mom when she felt? What does she feel when she woke up this morning? I cannot imagine the grief that she must be feeling and the victimization, the re-victimization she must be feeling right now because she thought it was over.

19:40She thought she was finally going to get to feel some real sense of closure after today. And that's just not going to happen. And look, it's interesting this letter that Christa Pike wrote to she talked about what these last two weeks have been like for her. And curious is Colleen's mom listening to everything Christa saying that's got to be talked to hear your daughter's killer be surrounded and supported. And she even talked about that. Christa wrote, I've gotten more love in the last two weeks than I've had in my entire life. Though there was an absence when my people showed up for me, they have showed up and showed out. I am humbled beyond words. I'm just wondering how that must feel for Colleen slumber's mom and dad. All about mercy, baby. All about mercy. We're supposed to be better and we're supposed to be bigger as a society, as a government. Right? When it comes to dealing with executions. But I leave room, baby. Complete pass for these families. Feel how ever you want to feel, want how ever you want this to go.

20:47I have nothing, babe. What that robes just the flipping how that was flipped. Think for a second about those two women. Christa Pike woke up. I'm going to die today. This is the worst day ever. She just got news that her life is spared. Colleen's dimmer's mom woke up. This is it. Finally. I'm free. I'm free. And she got a call to, baby. That Christa Pike's life was going to be spared. And now this has become maybe the second worst day of her life. Robes, that is so mean. What has just happened to this family. It's awful. It's awful, baby. It's the back and forth. It's the up and down. It's the will she won't she. You know, limbo anytime. And I hate to even compare what's happening there to these two women specifically to anything that pales in comparison. But anytime you're in limbo when you don't know what's going to happen when you want something to happen and you're waiting or you don't want something to happen and the waiting to see what will happen is oftentimes the cruelest part.

21:54Now imagine doing that for 30 years. That's what Colleen slummers mom has been going through. So folks, yes, the headlines will be talking about Christa Pike stay of execution and that she was spared the first woman to be executed in some 200 years in Tennessee. The first woman to be executed in this country and about 10 plus years that execution is not happening. And so now Colleen, Stimmers family has to do what? Wait for next court date. Go to the next court hearing. Wait for next clemency hearing. Wait for a next parole board to do something here. They go again and for how many years. That sucks. That just sucks. But once the hop on and give you this update, we will hop on if there any more throughout the day. But as of now, Christa Pike's execution has been stayed and with that folks, we appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm T.J. On behalf of my dear Amy Robock, we will talk to you also. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency that does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything.

23:03It's raw. And I'm sitting here going. They are playing y'all for foals. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the iHart Radio app Apple Podcast. Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.