‘There is pain in my soul’: Christa Pike breaks silence after surviving botched execution in Tennessee

Christa Pike, a death row inmate who survived a botched execution attempt in Tennessee, has released her first public statement on Friday (Oct 30), describing the physical and emotional pain she has endured since the failed execution. Pike, 50, survived two injections of the lethal drug pentobarbital in September, leaving her in critical condition. She was discharged from hospital towards the end of last month and returned to prison.

“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” Pike said, according to a statement released by her legal team on social media. “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 she was gradually recovering but remained far from being well.

“I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger,” she said. “But healing is not the same as being okay.”

What happened during Christa Pike’s botched execution?

Pike is believed to be the only person to have survived a lethal injection execution attempt in the United States. During the September procedure, she was heard saying that her arm felt as though it was going to burst before losing consciousness.

Her lawyers had earlier said that she developed pneumonia, suffered significant swelling in her arms and was unable to swallow following the execution attempt. She was subsequently taken to hospital, where she remained until her discharge last month.

Reflecting on the night she was supposed to die, Pike said she had entered the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution feeling at peace and prepared for her execution. She had spent her final days saying goodbye to loved ones.

Before witnesses in the execution chamber, she said she was leaving them in “loving kindness”, referring to a Buddhist prayer her spiritual adviser had taught her.

“I had not contemplated life beyond that night,” Pike said. She added that she was “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position”.

Why was Christa Pike sentenced to death?

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, alongside her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. She was 18 at the time of the crime and later became one of the youngest women on Tennessee’s death row.

Shipp was spared the death penalty because he was not legally an adult when the crime took place. He remains in prison.