The mother of Christa Pike’s victim, Colleen Slemmer, has spoken out after the killer woke up following two failed lethal injections.
After Pike’s attorney confirmed that she was conscious on Tuesday, October 6, Slemmer’s mom, May Martinez, told WBIR that she always knew Pike, 50, would not die and acknowledged she may survive if they try to execute her again.
When asked what she would prefer to happen to Pike next, Martinez said, “It doesn’t matter what I think; they’re going to do what they’re going to do.”
Martinez also spoke about the difficulty of the experience and claimed people were targeting her online.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after she was convicted of first-degree murder for beating, torturing and killing classmate Slemmer in a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. She committed the crime alongside her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. However, Shipp was sentenced to life in prison and not death because he was a minor at the time of the killing.
After years of trying to fight her death sentence, Pike made headlines when prison officials in Tennessee administered two rounds of lethal injections on September 30.
However, the injections failed to kill her, and Pike was hospitalized. After she was placed on a ventilator, staff worked to clear the pentobarbital from her system.
One week after she received the injections, her attorneys confirmed she was awake.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking and continues to receive critical medical care,” Pike’s attorneys Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason said in a statement to NBC News on Tuesday. “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
The attorneys said that Pike remained handcuffed and shackled in a hospital after she suffered injuries to her arms from the lethal injections.
“We are incredibly grateful to the first responders and the medical team at the hospital who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her,” Pike’s attorneys continued. “We also want to thank thousands from all over the world who sent messages offering prayers and support for Christa.”
After Pike’s injections failed, Martinez spoke to ABC Jacksonville affiliate WJXX about traveling from her home in Florida to Nashville to watch the execution.
“I broke down in tears,” Martinez said of the failed execution. “She was laying on the table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head. … I think that the state owes me a big apology, and as a mother, I failed her.”
