Christa Pike Granted All-Female Execution Team Before Botched Lethal Injection

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike — who is now in the hospital after a botched execution — was given the all-female lethal injection team she had requested, her attorneys revealed on Thursday.

“What I saw was consistent with that,” Randy Spivey said in response to a question about whether the execution staff was made up solely of women, according to a report by the New York Post.

Pike, who was supposed to become the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee since 1819, has instead become the first woman to survive lethal injection drugs during an execution attempt

In the hours after the failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) released a statement saying he has ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”

Stephen Ferrell, another of Pike’s lawyers, noted that the drugs may have been injected into the muscle of Pike’s arm instead of a vein.

Pike — who was convicted of torturing and killing her Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage 31 years ago — had asked for an all-female execution staff, saying male executioners would be too traumatizing because of her history of sexual abuse.

“That was her biggest fear as the victim of sexual abuse, that she would be pinned down, prodded, poked, cut,” Ferrell said.

The victim’s mother, May Martinez, called Pike’s request for female executioners nonsense, telling the Daily Mail, “I don’t think she should be allowed to have any special treatment — she didn’t consider how my daughter felt. She’s just playing the system … It’s all bull crap.”

As Breitbart News reported, a federal appeals court granted Pike a stay a little more than an hour before her execution — initially scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday — and after witnesses had already gathered at the Nashville prison.

“They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left,” Martinez told NBC News.

“We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner,” Slemmer’s mother continued. “And he said that it didn’t work — and she’s on her way to the hospital.”

Pike is now in critical condition at a local hospital after surviving two lethal injections during her failed execution on Wednesday night.

“They fucked up,” Martinez declared.

Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.