Mother of Christa Pike's victim slams execution attempt in first comments since lethal injection
The mother of Christa Pike's victim has made her feelings clear on what should happen to the convicted killer after her failed execution last night.
More than 30 years on from the brutal murder of Colleen Slemmer, her mother May Martinez believed that she would finally get justice when Pike received two doses of the lethal injection pentobarbital on Wednesday 30 September.
However, in a story that defies belief, Pike would survive the execution attempt and after her heart was still beating, she was rushed to hospital to undergo life-saving measures.
It's unclear at this point what will happen to the 50-year-old if she is fully revived in hospital, although doctors have suggested that she could suffer a brain injury from the ordeal.
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Martinez has now spoken out after last night's botched execution to lambaste the Tennessee authorities and also Pike, who she claimed showed no remorse or regret regarding her horrific actions back in 1995.
Making it clear that she was furious with the state’s governor, the director of the Department of Correction and the attorney general, Martinez said: “They went to try to execute her, and she didn’t die."
She added: “They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left.
“We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn’t work, that it didn’t work, and she’s on her way to the hospital.”
While many who face the death penalty choose to express remorse, plead innocence or apologise to their victim's families, Martinez claims she saw none of that from Pike in what was supposed to be her final moments.
When she was asked what her message to the governor and attorney general was, Martinez didn't mince her words, saying that 'they f****d up'.
Pike killed Slemmer alongside her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp after luring her to a secluded woodland, where they tortured and eventually killed her, with Pike carving a pentagram into her chest and keeping a piece of her skull.
She was due to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years and while other injections have failed after prison officials failed to find a vein, it seems as if it was an issue with the drug itself on this occasion.
Her legal team filed an emergency motion to halt the execution after Pike lost consciousness but her heart was still beating, with the inmate still receiving treatment in hospital at the time of writing.
Pike's legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean newspaper: "Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.
"We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy."
Topics: True Crime
James Moorhouse