While Christa Pike Has Survived Her Execution, Colleen Slemmer is Still Dead

(Screenshot of Colleen Slemmer via Facebook)

I have been trying to get my mind around the botched execution of Christa Pike, the woman responsible for murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Pike's attorneys warned the state of Tennessee that execution by lethal injection due to her veins. And, lo and behold, they were right.

Given that Pike committed murder prior to the end of 1998, she was eligible to be electrocuted under Tennessee law. In view of these facts, why this method of execution was not chosen reflects on the state's incompetence. 

It is worth noting that Pike's legal team moved to have her executed by hanging. I have little doubt they did this knowing full well that hanging is not a legally approved method of execution in Tennessee. But in light of the fact that Pike is still alive Republicans in the state are now considering legislating other such methods.

On a personal note, there are some people that just don't take needles well and I am one of them. Drawing blood was a near impossible task when I had my kidney stone ordeal at the end of 2023. They called me a hard stick.

With that said, the similarities between Christa Pike and I end right there. Notwithstanding the incompetence which surrounded her attempted execution, none of it changes that fact that Christa Pike is a murderer who paraded part of her victim's skull and carved a pentagram into her chest. 

That Pike feels a "kinship" with Lindsay Clancy, a woman who murdered her three children, should serve as a reminder that she is not a good person. As such, I cannot muster much sympathy for her.

I prefer to reserve my sympathy for May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer. What this woman has endured over the past three decades I cannot begin to imagine. She has spent decades waiting to bury her daughter because the state would not release the portion of her skull which Pike kept as a trophy for evidence until after Pike's execution.

When I learned that Pike had regained consciousness, I wondered what May Martinez thought of it all. Well, she did not keep us in suspense. Martinez said, “It doesn’t matter what I think. They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

Martinez also said she was not surprised that Pike survived the execution and does not believe they will try to execute her again. Perhaps Martinez has come to a point where all of this has become a cruel joke and that she has become the butt of it as Christa Pike has become a cause célèbre. 

And while Christa Pike has become a cause célèbre, Colleen Slemmer is still dead because Christa Pike took her life away from her.