Victim’s mother reacts to Christa Pike being ‘conscious, speaking’ after botched execution, report says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) - The mother of Christa Pike’s victim spoke out after her attorneys announced Tuesday that Pike is conscious nearly a week after her botched execution.

Pike, who is convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, was supposed to be executed via lethal injection in Tennessee last Wednesday. However, after receiving two doses of what should have been lethal amounts of pentobarbital, she survived.

May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, said she had a feeling Pike would survive, according to WBIR. She also said she does not think that Tennessee will make another attempt to execute her daughter’s killer.

Pike was left unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital following the failed execution. However, on Oct. 6, her attorneys reported that she is now awake and speaking.

“Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” they said.

When asked what her preference would be for what happens to Pike next, Martinez responded, “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“They’re going to do what they’re going to do,” she reportedly said.

Whether the state can proceed with another execution attempt remains to be seen.

“Given what we know now, how she responds to lethal injection, and given what happened to her, Christa Pike’s lawyers have a pretty good argument that it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment to execute her using [lethal injection],” Vanderbilt Law School professor Christopher Slobogin said.

A press conference with Pike’s attorneys will be held on Wednesday. The time for that press conference has yet to be confirmed.

Pike was one of three people found to be involved in the 1995 torture and killing of Slemmer on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus.

Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, was also found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He received life in prison rather than the death penalty because he was 17 at the time.

Shadolla Peterson, who was 18 during the crime, was convicted of being an accessory and received parole after she became an informant to police.