'They f***ed up': Colleen Slemmer's mother says she was denied justice after Tennessee's botched execution
From the Newshound archive · first published 2 October 2026.
Christa Pike, whose clemency petition was rejected by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday in the state's first female execution in over 200 years.Colleen Slemmer, whose mother May Martinez travelled to Nashville to witness Pike's execution and described the evening as "a mess.
May Martinez, whose 19-year-old daughter Colleen Slemmer was stabbed more than 100 times and had a pentagram carved into her flesh by Christa Pike in 1995, travelled to Nashville to watch Pike die — and instead watched officials administer two doses of pentobarbital that failed to kill her. Martinez told reporters she "didn't get justice" for her daughter and that Pike never once expressed remorse during the ordeal. Pike, now 50, remains on a ventilator in critical condition after the botched execution left her hospitalised.
Martinez watched Pike moving her head, her feet and trying to sit up before officials suddenly asked all victims' family members to leave without explanation.
Tennessee Bishops wrote to Governor Bill Lee urging him to commute Pike's sentence, saying they were 'mindful of the horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer' but that 'accountability need not require another death.'
Pike's lawyers say executioners used at least seven needles during the hour-long ordeal — one bent as it was removed — and allege the procedure broke Tennessee law twice by closing the curtains on witnesses.
