Christa Pike's aunt claims botched execution was providential: 'God is in control'

The aunt of Christa Pike claimed in a recent interview that God willed the recent botched execution of her niece, who had been sentenced to death in Tennessee for torturing and murdering a young woman in 1995.

Carrie Ross, who helped raise Pike and describes her as someone she "loves like a daughter," suggested it was providential that her niece survived seven needles and two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30, according to an interview with the Daily Mail.

She said Pike's inexplicable survival is evidence that God doesn't want the convicted murderer to be put to death.

"When God puts his hand on someone, God is in control," Ross told the outlet. "Not the Department of Correction, not us, but God."

Ross said Pike urged her not to attend the execution last week, and that the experience of her surviving it has been an emotional roller coaster.

"It's been up, down, up, down. I have cried more tears in the last week than I've cried in my whole life," she said, adding, "This whole week has been a blur."

Ross urged Tennessee authorities to commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"That would be horrible. Torture. Don't do that to a human," Ross said of a second execution attempt. "She has completed her execution. She went willingly."

"None of us excuse what she did," Ross added. "We know she committed a horrible, heinous crime, and she has to pay the price for that."

In March 1996, Pike was sentenced to death after brutally torturing and murdering her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a fit of jealousy in January 1995. She reportedly slashed Slemmer's throat, crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt and carved a satanic pentagram into her chest, though she later denied personally carving the pentagram.

Pike's legal team claimed she is "up and walking" but mentally "foggy" despite having been declared brain-dead following the unsuccessful execution attempt, which experts have described as unprecedented and uncharted legal territory, according to the BBC. Slemmer's mother, who advocated for Pike to be executed, has condemned the situation as a "mess."

Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey, told CNN his client was confused when she first regained consciousness.

"I was not in the room when she woke up, so I don't want to speculate too much. Our understanding was the first thing she said was, 'Where am I and who are you?'" he said. "There's still a lot of cognitive confusion and so I will say that."

"She has wanted to know what’s happened and she's asked about several people. She's asked about her team. She's asked about the victim’s family. I think she is angry and confused about everything," he said.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in court Wednesday that he didn't know if the state intends to try executing Pike again, though Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused all executions in the state for the rest of the year amid an investigation.

Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who reportedly oversaw botched executions in other states, resigned following Pike's survival.