How a botched execution got political

TRUMP100

The episode covers a botched lethal injection execution of Krista Pike in Tennessee, sparking political debate over capital punishment and m

Key takeaways

Krista Pike survived two failed lethal injections in Tennessee, leading Governor Bill Lee to suspend executions for the year while reviewing protocols.
The botched execution reignites death penalty debates, with Senator Marsha Blackburn advocating for the electric chair while Democrat Jerry Green pushes for a moratorium.
Pete Hegseth's
address targeted military culture with bans on beards and
while establishing an Office of Religious Affairs reporting directly to him.
Hegseth announced a new autonomous drone command, drawing criticism for prioritizing physical fitness metrics over technological warfare needs.

Main topics

Tennessee botched execution & death penalty politics
Pete Hegseth's State of the Force address & military culture
America.gov AI chatbot & election integrity

Notable quotes

"It is a tragedy, and it's deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state. The people deserve better."

Conclusion

The episode highlights how high-profile government failures and AI tools

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I'm Adele Robinson, a correspondent for Sky News, and I wanted to give you a recommendation for when you finish this podcast. I've made a documentary for YouTube called The Com, Online, Sadistic and Deadly. It takes a look inside one of the darkest corners of the internet and the disturbing community that exists there, exploring how young people can be drawn into it and the devastating consequences that can follow. It's a story that's difficult to hear, but one I think is really important to understand. You can find The Com on the Sky News app. website and YouTube channel. Speaker 6 (0:31) Sky News, the full story first. Speaker 1 (0:38) You and I were never on the road together, never in a car on the way to a story. Because we're never covering the same story. Well, exactly, yeah. So we don't play. We haven't together played the playlist game. Yeah. Now, David and I spoke about this the other day. We got his choices, my choices. We don't have yours. Speaker 2 (0:54) Oh, here we go. So, Speaker 1 (0:55) shall we? Go on then. All right. First music you paid money for. Oh, I Speaker 2 (1:00) mean. My taste in music, by the way, as my pals, my close pals will tell you, is not good. Probably one of those now tapes. Now that's what I call music. It was probably one of them. I used to make my own mixtapes as well at school. That Speaker 1 (1:14) sounds quite cool. All right. Number two. First concert Speaker 2 (1:17) you Speaker 1 (1:18) went to? Speaker 2 (1:18) U2 at Wembley. Wow. Yeah. Same as David. The Pot Mart tour. It was excellent. I Speaker 1 (1:23) still Speaker 2 (1:23) got the T-shirt somewhere. Speaker 1 (1:25) Pretty iconic. The artist your parents listened to. What did you listen to in the back of the car, you and your brother? Speaker 2 (1:30) Two things spring to mind. ABBA. Speaker 1 (1:33) There was a lot Speaker 2 (1:33) of ABBA. My dad used to drive a... We're really getting off topic here. Sorry, folks. My dad used to drive a Reliant Scimitar, which is a classic car. Go on Google, look them up. They're amazing. Anyway, in the Reliance Cimeter, there was an 8-track. Remember 8-track? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the old cassette thing. ABBA was one of the things. And Handel's water music used to make me go to sleep as a kid. All right, yeah. So they played a Speaker 1 (1:55) bit Speaker 2 (1:55) of that as well. Speaker 1 (1:56) Family Car was Volkswagen Beetle for me. I used to crawl on the bike for Speaker 2 (1:59) a Speaker 1 (1:59) kip. Speaker 2 (1:59) What Speaker 1 (2:00) concert do you wish you had been to? For me, it would be Simon and Garfunkel, 1980 Central Park. Wish I'd been to that. Okay. Speaker 2 (2:08) The Live Aid. Oh, Speaker 1 (2:10) okay, yeah. I mean, that had them all together, right? Yeah, actually, you know what? That's my choice as well. I'd go for that. Which artist? I'd have to be... Freddie Mercury? Oh, yeah, yeah. I did go to a Queen concert, my best concert, Edinburgh 1982. Come on, keep going. Yeah, a love song. Come on, for you. Oh, Speaker 2 (2:31) a Speaker 1 (2:31) love song. For you and your good lady. I Speaker 2 (2:33) don't know. Speaker 2 (2:36) Come back to me at the end. All right. Next. Speaker 1 (2:37) Well, for me, it'd be your latest trick, Dire Straits. Mind you, I'm not sure that's Susan's song. I'm a sentimental fool in our house. The last category, funeral song. What do you want played at your funeral? Oh, wow. Speaker 2 (2:53) I would probably be a hymn. I mean, I'm actually right in the middle of that at the moment. Just my brother and I putting together. the order of service for my dad's memorial, which is happening in November. So I'm kind of in the middle of all that. And we're kind of choosing hymns at the moment. Love Divine is a classic hymn. All right. So I think maybe that. All Speaker 1 (3:11) right. Well, for me, it would be Sunshine on Leith by the Proclaimers, which, you know, it's a football anthem, but it's also where I'm from. So that would do for me. What about First Dance? Speaker 2 (3:19) What Speaker 1 (3:20) was your, you and Susan? Well, we do, we had a kind of slow key wedding in Dublin. We didn't have dancing, which suits me. I don't dance. I can just about jump at the Van Halen jump song. That's about it. What was your first dance? Speaker 2 (3:33) Queen, Don't Stop Me Now. Of course Speaker 1 (3:37) it was. The most Mark Stone thing I've heard today. Oh, stop it. 100 Speaker 2 (3:40) miles an hour, as always. Speaker 2 (3:44) I am Mark Stone. And I am James Matthews. And we're both in the Trump 100 studio. And we will now get onto the podcast after all that. What are we going to talk about today? A high-profile execution in Tennessee goes horribly wrong. And guess what? It's political. We'll explain why. Speaker 1 (4:00) And beardos and weirdos, beware. Pete Hegseth's coming after you. He has delivered a state of the force address. Wait till you hear the state of this. Speaker 2 (4:10) And America.gov. This is a new government website. It's AI powered, Trump's AI chatbot effectively. We've been asking it some questions like who won the 2020 election? Was Trump robbed as he so often claims? The answers are interesting. Speaker 2 (4:32) So, James, a lot to get into today. A busy, busy day of news as ever. Trump's big Time magazine article, America.gov, Pete Hegseth as well, all that to come. But let's talk first about this extraordinary, extraordinary story. A botched execution in Nashville, Tennessee. Speaker 1 (4:50) Yeah, Mark, the case of Krista Pike, the 50-year-old woman from West Virginia. She's been in jail on death row. for 30 years. In 1995, she was 18 at the time, she murdered her classmate, a girl by the name of Colleen Slemmer. That was in Knoxville, Tennessee. Krista Pike, with her 17-year-old boyfriend at the time, and another friend they used for a lookout, they lured Slemmer into the woods and tortured and killed her. Now... Krista Pike, she was a very troubled teenager who had experienced physical and sexual abuse as a child. She'd become jealous of her victim, convinced that she was stealing her boyfriend. Speaker 2 (5:34) Yeah, there were lots of really very disturbing details from that murder 31 years ago, and we don't need to get into all of them now, but the case was famous at the time because it played into what was called the satanic... panic, a widespread moral fear in North America in the 80s and 90s about satanic cults and the occult. Pike's boyfriend, Ship, had carved a satanic symbol into Colleen Slemmer's chest as part of the torture. So in 1996, Ship was sentenced to life and Krista Pike was sentenced to death, the first woman in Tennessee to be executed in over 200 years. Pike's execution date was set for this Wednesday just past the 30th of September, except she's not dead. Speaker 1 (6:18) That's right. On Wednesday night, after the final legal hurdles were cleared, Pike was given her last meal, administered her last rite and given lethal injection. That injection didn't work. So the state of Tennessee administered a second lethal injection. That didn't work either. As it was happening, her legal team... filed a motion to halt the execution, saying that she had lost consciousness, but still had a heartbeat and that she was snoring. Speaker 2 (6:49) It is truly an extraordinary story, isn't it? Paramedics arrived at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville and whisked Pike to hospital, which is where she is at time of recording. And we now have this truly bizarre scenario, don't we, James, where a Tennessee hospital is keeping Krista Pike alive only to allow the state to try and kill her again. Speaker 1 (7:14) Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee, he's been in front of the cameras today. He called this situation a tragedy. So Speaker 4 (7:20) this is a tragedy. There is no one that... Speaker 4 (7:28) wanted what happened last night to happen. Speaker 4 (7:32) It shouldn't have happened. Speaker 4 (7:35) It's the most difficult of circumstances as it relates to the sentence that should have been carried out by the state. Speaker 4 (7:45) It's a tragedy, and it's deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state. The people deserve better. Speaker 1 (7:55) The governor, he suspended executions in the state for the rest of the year while he conducts a review into the circumstances. This comes just months after Tennessee failed to execute another death row inmate on that occasion because the medics administering the drug couldn't find a vein. Speaker 2 (8:14) So now on to the politics of it all. The case of Krista Pike has reinvigorated the conversation, of course, around the death penalty in America. Tennessee's ultra-conservative Senator Marsha Blackburn, who's running for governor next month in the midterm elections, she has called for the state to introduce the electric chair as the preferred method