The mother of Colleen Slemmer, the 19-year-old Tennessee woman whose 1995 killing led to Christa Pike’s death sentence, traveled more than 700 miles to witness what she believed would finally be the end of a decades-long legal chapter.

Instead, on September 30, 2026, she watched Pike survive Tennessee’s attempt to execute her.

May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, has since spoken publicly about what she witnessed inside the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, saying the experience left her devastated and questioning how the state could have failed to carry out a sentence that had been upheld for decades.

The failed execution has now developed into a broader crisis for Tennessee’s corrections system. Pike remains critically ill in a hospital, while the state has suspended executions for the remainder of 2026 and launched an independent review into what happened.

On October 3, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced that he would resign, saying stepping aside was in the state’s best interest while the investigation proceeds.

MAY MARTINEZ TRAVELED TO TENNESSEE FOR CLOSURE
Martinez and her husband, Raul, traveled from Florida to Tennessee to witness Pike’s execution.

They had waited more than three decades for the sentence imposed after Slemmer’s killing to be carried out.

Martinez told PEOPLE that she kept her eyes on Pike throughout the procedure.

She said she wanted Pike to remember Colleen and the harm caused to her family.

But what Martinez saw was not the execution she had expected.

According to witnesses, Pike remained conscious and continued breathing after the lethal injection was administered. Witnesses reported hearing breathing and snoring sounds from inside the chamber for an extended period.

Martinez later described the experience as deeply upsetting.

She also said that no state official had apologized to her following the failed execution and that she believed Tennessee owed her an apology.

“THEY F***ED UP”
In the interview reported by the New York Post, Martinez expressed anger at the way the execution unfolded.

Her husband, Raul, also questioned how an execution using a single lethal drug could fail despite the state having established procedures for administering it.

Their frustration was not simply about the technical failure.

For the family, the execution had represented a final moment of accountability for what happened to Colleen.

Instead, Martinez left the prison knowing Pike was still alive and had been transported to a hospital.

PEOPLE reported that the couple said they received little information from prison officials after Pike was taken away. They were reportedly told only that she had been transported to a hospital, without clear information about whether she would survive.

WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE EXECUTION CHAMBER?
Pike’s execution began Wednesday evening at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

She was strapped to a gurney with an intravenous line in place.

The state’s revised protocol called for the administration of pentobarbital, a single-drug lethal-injection method.

Pike was reportedly calm at the beginning of the procedure and was allowed to make a final statement.

But problems became apparent after the drug was administered.

Witness accounts indicate that Pike remained alive after the first dose.

Her head moved, she spoke during portions of the procedure and she complained that her arm was hurting.

A second dose was then administered under Tennessee’s protocol for an inmate who remains alive after the first administration.

But that did not produce the expected result either.

Witnesses continued hearing Pike breathe for a prolonged period.

According to the Washington Post’s minute-by-minute account, witnesses could hear what sounded like regular snoring from behind the chamber curtain for approximately an hour.

Eventually, witnesses were removed from the area.

Emergency personnel arrived at the prison, and Pike was transported to an outside hospital.

PIKE IS STILL ALIVE
Pike, now 50, remains critically ill following the failed execution.

Her attorneys said she was unconscious, intubated and being supported by a mechanical ventilator.

They also said she suffered significant injuries to both arms during the attempts to administer the lethal injection.

Her legal team has argued that Tennessee officials were warned beforehand that placing intravenous lines could be particularly difficult because Pike had small veins and thrombocytosis, a blood disorder.

Those allegations are now among the issues that will be examined as part of the state’s review.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has maintained that its personnel followed the established execution protocol.

The department has not publicly provided a complete explanation for why the procedure failed.

PIKE’S ATTORNEYS SAY SHE FEARED A PROLONGED DEATH
One of the more striking details to emerge after the failed execution concerns what Pike reportedly feared before the procedure.

According to her attorneys, Pike was not primarily afraid of dying.

Instead, they said her greatest concern was experiencing a prolonged and painful execution.

Her lawyers said Pike attempted to help medical personnel locate veins where IV access might be possible.

The defense has argued that her medical history should have been taken more seriously before the state proceeded.

The state’s review will now have to determine whether officials properly assessed those medical concerns and whether the execution team followed every requirement of Tennessee’s protocol.

WHY WAS CHRISTA PIKE ON DEATH ROW?
Pike was sentenced to death for her role in the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer.

Pike was 18 at the time.

According to court records and previous reporting, Slemmer was a student at the University of Tennessee when she became involved with Pike and others.

Pike was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Her case remained on appeal for decades.

The planned September 30 execution came roughly 30 years after Pike received her death sentence.

She would also have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.

THE SUPREME COURT ALLOWED THE EXECUTION TO GO AHEAD
Pike’s execution was not carried out without a final series of legal challenges.

On September 30, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to proceed after a lower federal court had temporarily paused the execution.

The Supreme Court’s decision allowed Tennessee to carry out the sentence before Pike’s death warrant expired at midnight.

The majority did not provide an explanation for the decision.

Three justices dissented from the ruling.

The legal battle therefore ended with the state authorized to carry out the sentence.

The subsequent failure occurred inside the execution chamber rather than through the courts.

TENNESSEE HAD ALREADY EXPERIENCED ANOTHER EXECUTION PROBLEM
The Pike incident is particularly significant because Tennessee had already encountered another execution problem earlier in 2026.

In the earlier case involving Tony Arthur Carruthers, officials were unable to establish suitable intravenous access, and the execution was postponed.

Unlike the Pike case, lethal drugs were not successfully administered during that earlier attempt.

The two incidents have intensified scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution procedures and the state’s ability to carry them out reliably.

Gov. Bill Lee responded to Pike’s failed execution by ordering an independent review and halting scheduled executions for the remainder of 2026.

FRANK STRADA ANNOUNCES HIS RESIGNATION
The controversy escalated on October 3 when Tennessee announced that Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada would resign.

Strada said he believed the department’s personnel had followed the established protocol.

Nevertheless, he said stepping down was in the best interests of Tennessee as the independent review moves forward.

Gov. Lee thanked Strada for his service and said an interim commissioner would be announced.

Strada’s resignation does not represent a finding that he or the department violated the execution protocol.

The investigation is intended to determine exactly what happened and whether any procedures were improperly followed.

ED STANTON WILL LEAD THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW
On October 4, Gov. Lee appointed former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to lead the independent investigation.

Stanton previously conducted an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal-injection procedures in 2022 after the state discovered problems involving the testing of drugs used in executions.

That earlier investigation contributed to Tennessee substantially revising its execution protocol before executions resumed in 2025.

The latest investigation will examine whether the Tennessee Department of Correction followed the revised protocol during Pike’s execution attempt.

It will also consider whether additional changes are necessary.

THE STATE’S NEW SINGLE-DRUG PROTOCOL IS UNDER SCRUTINY
Tennessee’s current procedure uses a single dose of pentobarbital rather than the three-drug combination previously used by the state.

The change was part of the revised protocol adopted after the earlier review.

Pike’s failed execution has now placed that protocol under renewed scrutiny.

The central question is not simply whether pentobarbital can cause death.

Investigators will need to determine whether the drug was properly administered, whether IV access was established correctly, whether Pike’s medical condition affected the procedure and whether officials responded appropriately when the first administration did not produce the expected result.

MARTINEZ SAYS SHE STILL HAS NOT FOUND CLOSURE
For Slemmer’s mother, the investigation is secondary to a more personal question.

She traveled to Tennessee believing she would finally see justice carried out for her daughter.

Instead, she witnessed an execution attempt that ended with Pike being taken away alive.

Martinez has said Pike has never shown the remorse she believes would have helped her family find closure.

She has also said Pike never apologized to her for what happened to Colleen.

The failed execution therefore reopened emotions that Martinez had carried for more than 30 years.

She now faces the possibility that there may be no immediate resolution to the question of what will happen to Pike.

WHAT HAPPENS TO CHRISTA PIKE NOW?
The failed execution does not automatically erase Pike’s death sentence.

However, her medical condition, the circumstances of the failed execution and the state’s decision to suspend executions have created a new and highly unusual legal situation.

Pike’s attorneys have already asked Gov. Lee to commute her death sentence.

They have also sought preservation of evidence from the execution attempt, including records and other material that could help determine precisely what happened inside the prison.

Any future attempt to carry out the sentence would likely face additional legal and procedural scrutiny.

At present, the immediate focus is on Pike’s medical condition and the independent investigation.

LATEST UPDATE — OCTOBER 4, 2026
The situation has changed significantly since the New York Post’s October 1 report.

Christa Pike remains alive but critically ill, according to her attorneys. She is unconscious and has been receiving ventilator support following the failed execution.

Tennessee has suspended executions for the remainder of 2026, following the incident.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is resigning, while maintaining that he believes his department followed the established protocol.

And on October 4, former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton was appointed to lead the independent review of the failed execution. Stanton previously investigated Tennessee’s execution protocol in 2022.

For May Martinez and the Slemmer family, however, the central issue remains unchanged: after more than three decades, they still do not feel they have received the finality they expected for Colleen.

The investigation may eventually explain what went wrong in Tennessee’s execution chamber. But for the family of Colleen Slemmer, the failed procedure has created another painful chapter in a case that began more than 30 years ago.

SOURCES
Tennessee Department of Correction — Christa Pike media advisory