Victim’s mum breaks silence on Christa Pike being ‘aware and talking’
May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, has spoken out after her daughter’s killer Christa Pike survived a botched execution and is now conscious and speaking in hospital in Tennessee
Christa Pike cried as she was sentenced to death – three decades on she has survived the lethal injection(Image: AP)
The mother of Colleen Slemmer has broken her silence after the woman who murdered her daughter survived a botched execution.
The Tennessee death row inmate is now conscious and able to speak following an unsuccessful execution that left her unconscious and reliant on a ventilator. Pike, 50, endured two doses of pentobarbital as executioners tried to end her life last Wednesday for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Six days after the failed execution, her lawyers have provided a remarkable update on her health. They reported that her arms were left burned and blistered.
Christa Pike survived the botched execution(Image: AP)
In a statement, Pike’s attorneys said: “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented.”
May Martinez, the mother of Pike’s murder victim Colleen Slemmer, revealed she had a premonition that Pike would survive. She also expressed doubt that Tennessee will make another attempt to execute her daughter’s killer, in an interview with NBC affiliate WBIR.
When WBIR asked Martinez about her preference for what should happen next to Pike, she responded, “It doesn’t matter what I think. They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anaesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who served as an expert consultant for Pike’s legal team, said the development “bodes well for a good recovery.”
However, he added, it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored to a level that might enable the state to try again to execute her.
Providing an update on her hospital ward he said: “She’s still in the ICU.”
Christa Pike’s victim’s mum has broken her silence(Image: AP)
Pike surviving two lethal injection doses has raised questions about competency – whether she can understand why she would be put to death – Pike has strong arguments that it would be cruel and unusual to try again, and that it would violate the prohibition on double jeopardy, trying or punishing someone twice for the same offence, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law professor who has studied execution methods for 36 years.
“She has satisfied this very, very high standard for cruel and unusual punishment,” Denno said. “She also has a very good double-jeopardy argument. They carried out every aspect of the execution. She didn’t die, but every process they intended, they did it.”
Seattle University Law Professor Michael Russo, who handled capital cases as a public defender in Los Angeles, described the failed execution as horrible, but said he doubted whether the Supreme Court would prevent the state from trying again on double-jeopardy grounds, should it decide to do so.
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to rush Pike to hospital
“There’s nobody else in the history of the death penalty in this country who has gone through what she’s been through,” Russo said. But, he added, “I think what this Supreme Court would say is, her sentence was to die – to be executed – not to suffer an attempt at execution.”
Pike’s legal team said in their Tuesday statement that they continue to urge outgoing Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all further executions following Pike’s hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to succeed him, urged the state to examine alternative execution methods to ensure capital punishment can continue to be carried out.
