Survivor Describes Pain After Failed Execution

Two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill Christa Pike during a Tennessee execution attempt on September 30, leaving the 50-year-old hospitalized and now recovering in a prison infirmary. Pike said Friday she remains in constant pain a month later. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," she said. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak."

Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The case made her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. She was convicted in the stabbing death, which prosecutors say occurred that year.

She blamed the failed execution on what she called "incompetence." "I'm deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position," Pike said. She added that she continues to think about Slemmer's family and the loss they have endured. Pike also said she is thankful for the medical workers who treated her and for people who have shown her kindness.

Pike said she never considered a life beyond her scheduled execution date and prepared to die, then woke in a hospital bed alone and confused. Her statement was dictated to her legal team from the infirmary at the facility where she is housed. She was hospitalized after the execution attempt and later transferred to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.

Governor Bill Lee has ordered an investigation into what occurred during the execution attempt and postponed the state's other lethal injection scheduled for this year. Pike's attorneys have asked Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment. Speaking to reporters this week, Lee said, "I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts."

Pike said some days finding hope is harder than others. "For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time," she said. "And I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone."