Christa Pike survives botched Tennessee execution as victim's mother speaks out

Christa Pike survived her scheduled execution in Tennessee after receiving two full doses of lethal injection, remaining unresponsive but not comatose. The mother of her victim, Colleen Slemmer, has since spoken out, revealing she nearly took the law into her own hands after witnessing the failed execution.

Botched execution details

Pike was due to be executed on Wednesday evening for the murder of Colleen Slemmer in January 1995. Despite receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a deadly drug, she remains alive and in a critical condition, undergoing life-saving medical treatment. Her lawyer alleges she was pricked with a needle seven times during the bungled procedure.

Pike was poised to become the first woman executed in the US state in two centuries. In what were intended to be her final words, she stated: "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life - and that is with love."

Witness accounts

Witnesses in the execution chamber reported that the curtains separating Pike from the viewing area were drawn at 7.46pm, only to be reopened three minutes later at 7.49pm. They described Pike gasping and moaning as she kicked her bedsheet. One observer noted: "Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times."

By 8.26pm, witnesses stated that the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered. However, Pike's snoring could still be heard behind the closed curtain until the microphone was switched off at 8.53pm. At this point, media witnesses were escorted away, and Pike was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Legal and family reactions

Her solicitor Randy Spivey commented on Thursday: "We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment." He added: "But we do know that she is alive right now." Her legal team argue that the botched execution equates to "torture" and are calling for her death sentence to be commuted. Spivey expressed: "I'm haunted by last night. What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again."

Colleen's mother, May, spoke to PEOPLE while driving back to Florida from Tennessee. During the interview, she revealed she nearly took justice into her own hands. May confessed: "If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen."

The heartbroken mother has now been deprived of over 30 years of memories. She expressed: "Well, you miss a lot. You miss the holidays, you miss the birthdays, you miss Mother's Days and stuff like that." May also revealed that she was told Pike was chained to a hospital bed and constantly monitored by law enforcement. When questioned about her thoughts the day after witnessing the botched execution, May responded: "I want to go kill Christa. How's that?"