Christa Pike says she feels constant pain in her first statement since failed Tennessee execution

By KIM CHANDLER

Christa Pike said she is in constant pain since surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month but thankful for the love and support she has received.

Pike issued her first public statement through her attorneys on Friday. She said she went into the execution chamber prepared to die in peace and woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed.

“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 said.

Pike, 50, said she had not contemplated a life beyond her execution date.

“I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position. I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured,” Pike said.

Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital as the state tried to execute her on Sept. 30 for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer with her boyfriend, becoming one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death.

She said she is thankful for the medical workers who saved her life and the people who showed her kindness.

“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,” she said.

Pike’s attorneys have urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to reduce Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment. Lee told reporters this week that, “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”

Lee called for an investigation into what happened during the failed execution and postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled this year.

Friday’s statement was dictated to her legal team from the infirmary at the prison where she is housed.

Pike was hospitalized in the immediate aftermath of the failed execution and then moved back to prison at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.