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Christa Pike said there hasn’t been a moment since her botched execution that she hasn’t been in pain, as she broke her silence one month after surviving two lethal injections.
The convicted murderer, 50, was set to be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years, but instead became the first prisoner ever to survive after being given the drugs.
“One month ago on September 30, I walked into the execution chamber at Riverbend men’s prison prepared to die. I had made my peace,” Pike said in a statement released by her attorneys.
“Several days later I woke up alone in a hospital confused and in pain. There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain.
“My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn’t just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”
Pike – who was sentenced to death over the sadistic murder of her Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 – also whined about being kept on her own in the infirmary after she was sent back to the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville.
“Since that night, I have been largely isolated in the prison’s medical ward, away from other people and the human connections that mean so much to me,” she moaned.
“That isolation brings its own kind of pain. I spent 28 years in solitary confinement and much of what I am experiencing today is a repeat of that condition.”
Pike was rushed to hospital after the failed execution and at one point was thought to be brain dead before she shockingly woke up on Oct. 6.
In her statement, she also took a swipe at the Tennessee authorities who bungled her execution.
“I had not contemplated life beyond that night, and I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position,” she said.
Here’s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:
- Christa Pike’s executioners were given ominous warning before botched lethal injection: court docs
- Christa Pike talking in full sentences as she continues to recover from botched execution
- 911 dispatcher assumed call that Christa Pike had survived her execution was a ‘prank’
- Emergency help was delayed after Christa Pike’s botched execution over confusion, 911 calls reveal
“I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured. I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger. But healing is not the same as being okay.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee halted all executions in the Volunteer State for the rest of the year after the fiasco and ordered an independent review — while prisons boss Frank Strada resigned.
Lee –– who will leave office in January –– hinted Thursday that Pike’s sentence will remain the same despite the botched execution.
Pike’s lawyers have demanded that he commute her sentence, saying she has “endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”
Pike said in her statement that, for now, she was focused on recovering after surviving two doses of pentobarbital allegedly administered using 10 needles.
“I don’t know why I survived that night,” she added. “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.”
A judge earlier this month reopened Pike’s civil case against the use of lethal injection to execute her.
The judge ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution after Pike’s legal team argued it could be “relevant for any future challenge she makes.”
