Christa Pike's Botched Execution, Juvenile Lifers & the Mnemonic Plague

The plan was hair-donation charities. Then Tennessee made world news by failing to execute Christa Pike, the second botched execution in the state this year, so Ashley changed the topic on the drive in and Kila found out when the mic went live. Ashley brought notes.

Christa Pike's crime, the 30 years of appeals, the request for a firing squad, the vein disease, the 40 minutes of searching for a vein, the burning, the blinds coming down, and the ambulance that took 52 minutes after her attorney demanded one. Kila has the timeline: first drug at 7:36, ambulance at 9:14.

They dig into the doctor who oversaw it (multiple botched executions on his record), why the state switched from three drugs to one, the 2001 boot-lace attack in prison, and the fact that Pike is now the only person known to have survived a complete execution attempt in the United States.

Also: whether watching an execution is a practice that should still exist, and Ashley's post-Prozac stance on loving everybody. Second half: Kila listened to a Dateline episode on juvenile lifers and the Parole Project, which turns into a real conversation about 151-year sentences for cocaine next to 27 years for murder, whether drugs should be decriminalized, and what Oregon actually did with Measure 110.

Then the manager drops a conspiracy about a Russian plague lab and Taylor Swift's "Patient Zero," Kila's husband says the AI is going to kill us in five to seven years, and Kila cannot say "bubonic." Recommendations: $19 kids' Levi's at Sam's Club, and The Good Daughter.

Next week: hair-donation charities, for real this time. Send us your spooky stories for Halloween: BarbaraJeanAndWanda@gmail.com.

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