May Martinez, the mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, spent 12 hours in a viewing room at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before Christa Pike's botched execution on Wednesday September 30. Pike, now 50, was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years for the murder of Slemmer in January 1995.
12-hour wait for justice
May and her husband Raul Martinez Jr. drove 11 hours from their home in Florida to Nashville to witness the execution. They arrived at the prison at 8:30 a.m. on September 30 and were placed in a viewing room where they remained for the next 12 hours. They had been told the execution would occur at 10 a.m., but a delay occurred as judges ruled on an emergency stay filed by Pike's lawyers.
“Finally, at about 6:30 p.m., quarter to 7, they said, ‘It’s a go,’” Raul says. May notes she planned to hold a picture of her daughter at the execution but was not able to “because the execution was so messed up.”
Botched execution details
Witnesses in the execution chamber reported that the curtains separating Pike from the viewing area were closed at 7.46pm but reopened three minutes later at 7.49pm. Pike was seen gasping and moaning as she kicked her bedsheet. One witness said: "Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times."
By 8.26pm, a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered, but Pike continued snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8.53pm. Everyone in the witness room was ordered to leave, and Pike was later rushed to hospital.
Aftermath and reactions
May and Raul were moved to the commissioner’s office and waited an hour for him to speak to them. May says the commissioner had little information beyond confirming Pike "was taken to the hospital," but he did not know "if she was going to be alive or dead."
Pike's lawyer Randy Spivey said on Thursday: "We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment. But we do know that she is alive right now." Her lawyers claim the failed execution amounted to "torture" and called for her death sentence to be commuted. Spivey said: "I’m haunted by last night. What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again."
May previously told PEOPLE she would have taken justice into her own hands: "If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen." She says she does not think she will return if they try to execute Pike again, should she survive. "The whole thing was yesterday was supposed to be my justice, but I guess I failed my daughter," May says.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has paused all executions in the state and ordered a review into Pike's unprecedented botched execution.
