May Martinez, the mother of Colleen Slemmer, traveled from Florida to Nashville expecting to witness the completion of a death sentence that had been pending since 1996. Instead, on September 30 she sat in the witness area for many hours and observed Christa Pike receive two doses of pentobarbital without dying. Martinez later told reporters that Pike was awake, moving her head and feet, attempting to sit up, and that the first and second injections both failed. She described the scene as a mess and said she did not receive justice for her daughter.

In interviews she stated she had a feeling Pike would survive and expressed doubt that Tennessee would attempt another execution. She also said the state owes her a large apology and recounted the emotional weight of 31 years without her child. Colleen Slemmer was 19 when she was murdered on January 12, 1995. Prosecutors said Pike, then 18, and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, then 17, lured her from the Knoxville Job Corps campus into nearby woods over a perceived romantic rivalry. They beat her with rocks, cut her throat, carved a pentagram into her chest, and Pike kept a fragment of her skull as a souvenir. Shipp received a life sentence; a third person present as a lookout was not convicted of the killing.

Martinez has long maintained that Pike should face the death penalty and has spoken of the pain her daughter endured. She recalled a final phone conversation with Colleen that was cut short by poor reception; when she called back, her daughter was already gone.

After the failed attempt, Martinez said she felt the state had laughed in her face again after three decades. She has indicated that her personal preference for what happens next does not ultimately matter because authorities will decide, while emphasizing that the focus has often seemed to rest more on Pike than on the victim. The family has waited through appeals, a clemency denial on September 28, and now a botched procedure that left the sentence in limbo.