Mother of victim in botched execution calls for apology

The mother of the teenager murdered by Christa Pike said she believes she is owed an apology following the botched execution attempt in Tennessee this week. The execution attempt came 30 years after Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Pike, 50, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is in critical condition at a hospital receiving "life-saving" care after her execution failed despite multiple lethal injections, her attorneys stated Thursday. Slemmer's mother had traveled from her home in Orange Park, Florida, to Nashville with her husband for the execution, which began Wednesday night after a series of last-minute legal challenges.

"It's hard. I broke down in tears," the victim's mother, May Martinez, told ABC Jacksonville affiliate WJXX over the phone Thursday while traveling back home to Florida. "She was laying on the table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head."

When asked if anyone had apologized to her about the incident, she told the station, "No, sir. Nobody apologized." Martinez added, "I think that the state owes me a big apology." She also expressed personal remorse, saying, "And as a mother, I failed her."

Witnesses to the execution reported that authorities appeared to administer two rounds of lethal pentobarbital. However, Pike still seemed to be breathing an hour later when witnesses were escorted out of the chamber. Multiple witnesses reported hearing Pike breathing and snoring loudly after the drugs were administered, even after the curtains were closed.

Martinez told WJXX she inquired about the next steps and whether Pike would return to prison. "'I don't know what we're doing with her yet.' That's the answer I got," she recounted. "I said, 'Here we are, 31 years, and you're laughing in my face again.' And that's what I feel like they did."

Following Martinez publicly seeking assistance with travel costs to Nashville, the Jacksonville community raised over $2,500, WJXX reported. "All I wanted was justice," Martinez told WJXX.

Randy Spivey, an attorney with the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, informed reporters Thursday that Pike was in critical condition and receiving "life-saving medical care." Pike's legal team has requested that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee commute her death sentence.

In response to the botched execution, Gov. Lee announced he has ordered a "third-party review" and that the state will not proceed with any scheduled executions this year. "So far as we know, the Department of Correction followed exactly the protocol as outlined," the governor stated Thursday, adding that the state needs to understand "why the outcome is different this time than ever before." He emphasized, "There is no one that wanted what happened last night to happen. It shouldn't have happened." Lee continued, "The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered, and that's what this investigation is for."

When asked about his message to the families of Pike and Slemmer, Lee described the situation as a "tragedy." He reiterated, "There is no one that wanted what happened last night to happen. It shouldn't have happened. It's the most difficult of circumstances as it relates to a sentence that should have been carried out by the state. It's a tragedy, and it's deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state. The people deserve better than that, and we're going to make sure that happens." He confirmed he had not spoken to Slemmer's family.

In 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder for the brutal killing of Slemmer, her fellow Jobs Corps worker, in a secluded area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the crime, reportedly told a friend she planned to kill Slemmer because she "just felt mean that day." She admitted to committing the crime with her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Shipp was also convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.