True Crime Reality

In a shocking development, a federal appeals court has stepped in and stopped the execution of 50-year-old Christa Pike. Pike would’ve been the first woman in more than 200 years executed by the state of Tennessee, and she had already lost her appeal to the Supreme Court. Governor Bill Lee even announced earlier this week that he would not offer Pike clemency. The federal court wants to review whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing. The mother of Pike’s victim, Colleen Slemmer had raised money to travel to Nashville to attend Pike’s execution, and has been publicly advocating for her execution for the past three decades. 

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50-year-old Christa Pike is scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819.   Pike was convicted of the torture and murder of an alleged romantic rival when she was 18-years-old.  She committed her crime with her then 17-year-old boyfriend, and because of his age he was given a life sentence, while Pike was sentenced to death. There have been dozens of women’s advocacy groups trying to halt her execution based on her extensive sexual abuse and mental health history.  At this point, all of Pike’s appeals have been exhausted, and the Governor of Tennessee has already made his decision not to intervene. The mother of Pike’s victim, Colleen Slemmer, plans to attend, saying she’s been waiting for this day for more than 30 years.

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Elisa Donovan and Jenn Fessler react to the guilty verdict in the American Idol murder case and the stunning evidence that convinced a jury despite no recovered murder weapon, no gunshot-residue test and no blood on Caleb.

Jenn says the more than 100,000 messages between Caleb and his mistress may have essentially become the prosecution’s “murder weapon.”

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It took the jury less than three hours to convict 40-year-old former American Idol Contestant Caleb Flynn for the murder of his wife, Ashley, last February. During closing arguments the prosecution reminded the jury of the overwhelming evidence against Flynn, including his damning text messages about wanting to kill his wife. The defense spent nearly an hour trying to convince the jury there was reasonable doubt because no physical evidence connected Flynn to the murder. We have Ashley’s family reaction and Caleb’s parents comments after the guilty verdict was delivered.

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Lindsay Clancy had her first hearing since the mistrial, and Kevin Reddington made a shocking move… What’s next?
Plus, Caleb Flynn’s fate is now in the hands of the jury. What do Emily and Shane think about the AI songs and 100,000+ text messages between him and his mistress? 

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Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”

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A bizarre and disturbing story out of the Bay Area: two, 76-year-old murder suspects are in custody, accused of murdering their son-in-law at a California sports complex and playground. Police say Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen each shot 40-year-old Jonathan McKinsey multiple times, witnesses directing police to the couple within minutes of the murder. McKinsey was the director of engineering for the games section of The New York Times and was in a contentious and complicated divorce and custody battle that included decades of domestic violence accusations and restraining orders. The couple is expected in court on Wednesday, where we hope to get more details in this shocking crime.

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While no date has been set yet for the retrial of Lindsay Clancy, the prosecution acknowledged it is moving forward with its case against the mom accused of strangling her three young children to death.  Clancy’s defense attorney surprised the court, making an argument that the case against her should be thrown out because there is no actual evidence she killed her children. The judge plans to rule on several motions presented by the prosecution, defense, a media organization and the holdout juror in early November.

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The fate of Caleb Flynn will be in the hands of the jury today after both the prosecution and defense rested their cases on Monday. The prosecution called 40 witnesses over the past 7 days, while the defense chose to rest without calling a single witness to the stand. The former American Idol contestant is accused of shooting and killing his wife Ashely while she was sleeping and then staging the home to make it look like a burglary. While the defense reminded the jury there is no physical evidence linking Flynn to the murder, there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to Flynn,  including from his own text messages. Flynn’s mistress, Alleigha Botner testified to hundreds of damning texts where Flynn repeatedly said he wanted to kill his wife.

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Lindsay Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has filed several motions for today’s hearing as we wait to hear whether prosecutors plan to retry Clancy for the strangling deaths of her three children.  Reddington will first ask the judge to find Clancy not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.  The defense has also moved to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds, arguing the judge should not have declared a mistrial, but instead should have questioned the holdout juror or replaced him. Reddington has also requested additional information about the juror, including cellphone records and his confidential questionnaire, as the juror himself spoke out for the first time on Monday.

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