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The JustPod is a podcast of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, hosted by Justin Danilewitz. This episode features a conversation with Laura Porter, Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
This episode features a timely and sobering conversation recorded just two days after Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Christa Pike. Pike, now 50, spent nearly three decades on death row for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a crime committed when Pike was just 18. On September 30, 2026, Pike was scheduled to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries. But the execution did not go as planned. Despite the administration of two doses of pentobarbital, witnesses reported that Pike remained conscious at points, complained of pain in her arm, and continued breathing for more than 40 minutes. The execution was ultimately halted, and Pike was transported by ambulance to a hospital, where she remained in critical condition as of October 1.
