Christa Pike stated Friday that she continues to experience constant pain and has difficulty speaking, more than a month after surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee. Pike, 50, described the incident as a failure due to "incompetence" in her first public statement since the botched execution.
Pike said she had been prepared to die peacefully and did not anticipate surviving her execution date. Instead, she awoke in a hospital bed feeling "alone and confused." She recounted the persistent pain affecting her body, including her arms, hands, and throat, and noted that the suffering extends beyond the physical to her mind and soul.
Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital on September 30, when the state attempted to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder, making her one of the youngest women to receive a death sentence.
"I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position," Pike said in her statement. "I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured."
Following the failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called for an investigation and postponed the state's remaining scheduled lethal injection for the year. The state's commissioner of the Department of Correction resigned in the aftermath.
Pike expressed gratitude for the medical personnel who saved her life and for the kindness shown to her. "I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what comes next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time. And I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone,"
According to her legal team, Pike's arms sustained burns and blisters during the attempted execution. She was initially unconscious and on a ventilator following the incident. Experts have suggested that a potential issue with the IV line could have caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.
Pike's attorneys have requested that Governor Lee commute her sentence to life imprisonment. Lee has indicated that her sentence is likely to remain unchanged unless a court determines otherwise.
Pike's statement was dictated to her lawyers from the infirmary at the prison where she is currently held. She was hospitalized after the failed execution and subsequently transferred back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.