Victim's mum reacts to Christa Pike being 'conscious, speaking' after surviving botched execution

Victim's mum reacts to Christa Pike being 'conscious and speaking' after surviving botched execution Christa Pike's victim's mum has spoken out following the news that Pike is 'conscious, speaking' after surviving the botched execution. Her recovery has been classed as "medically unprecedented" The mother of Colleen Slemmer has spoken out after her daughter's killer survived a botched execution. The Tennessee death row inmate is awake and speaking after her botched executionleft her unconscious and on a ventilator. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as executioners attempted to put her to death last Wednesday for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Six days after the botched execution her lawyers have issued an incredible update on her health. Her lawyers said her arms were left burned and blistered. Attorneys for Pike said in a statement: “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, said she had a feeling Pike would survive. She also said she does not think that Tennessee will make another attempt to execute her daughter’s killer she said in an interview with NBC affiliate WBIR. WBIR asked Martinez what her preference would be for what happens next to Pike, to which she responded, “It doesn’t matter what I think. They’re going to do what they’re going to do." Giving an update on her hospital ward he said: “She’s still in the ICU." Pike surviving two lethal injection doses has led to 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 offense, 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, called the failed execution horrible, but said he doubted whether the Supreme Court would stop the state from trying again on double-jeopardy grounds, should it decide to do so. “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 attorneys said in their Tuesday statement that they continue to ask outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted further executions following Pike's hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to replace him, called on the state to explore other methods of execution to ensure it can continue carrying out capital punishment.