The mother of Christa Pike's murder victim said she almost took justice into her own hands after watching the botched execution on Wednesday evening. May Martinez, whose daughter Colleen Slemmer was killed by Pike in 1995, told PEOPLE she wanted to use a box cutter on the convicted killer.
Pike, 50, remains alive and in a critical condition after surviving two full doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital during the failed execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. She is unresponsive but not in a coma and is receiving life-saving medical treatment.
Failed execution details
Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. In her planned final words, she said: "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life – and that is with love."
According to witnesses, the curtains separating Pike from the viewing area were closed at 7.46pm but reopened three minutes later. Witnesses described Pike gasping and moaning as she kicked her bedsheet. One said: "Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times."
By 8.26pm, witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital had been administered, but Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8.53pm. She was later rushed to a nearby hospital.
Lawyer and family reaction
Her 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." He added: "I'm haunted by last night. What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again."
Her lawyers claim the failed execution amounted to "torture" and have called for her death sentence to be commuted. Pike spent nearly 30 years on death row for the murder of Slemmer, who was killed at age 19 after being lured into an isolated area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus in January 1995. Pike was convicted alongside her boyfriend in 1996.
May Martinez, speaking while driving back to Florida from Tennessee, said: "If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen." She added: "Well, you miss a lot. You miss the holidays, you miss the birthdays, you miss Mother's Days and stuff like that." When asked what was on her mind the day after the botched execution, she said: "I want to go kill Christa. How's that?"
Executions paused
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has paused all executions in the state and ordered a review into Pike's unprecedented botched execution. May also said she was informed that Pike is chained to a hospital bed and surrounded by law enforcement at all times.
