Killer Christa Pike complains of pain after botched execution

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike said Friday that she still experienced constant pain, a month after an attempt to execute her went awry. She said that her arms, hands, and throat especially hurt, and she struggled to speak, according to a statement her lawyers distributed. Pike was sentenced to death by lethal injection for her brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. But during her Sept. 30 injection, two vials of the lethal drug pentobarbital failed to kill her. Her lawyers previously mentioned specific issues with her veins, but stopped short of attributing her survival to those issues.

Pike said Friday that she had left the hospital and was back in prison, receiving care in a medical ward. She was gaining strength, she said. Pike also said she was mostly isolated from people in the ward, in what she characterized as a painful continuation of her previous 28 years in solitary confinement.

The prisoner added that she was ready to die on the day of her execution, but was now “in a terrible position” due to what she believed to be the incompetence of the state. She was searching for meaning in what happened, and she continued to think of her victim’s family, she said. Pike also said she was overwhelmed by prayers and support from both strangers and friends who believed her life mattered. She did not know what would happen next, she said.

Have state officials said what will happen to Pike? Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday that he believed her sentence would remain the same unless courts ruled otherwise, according to WSMV-TV. The state doesn’t have an official protocol for inmates who survive execution attempts, but if Pike remains on death row, she could be again scheduled for execution.

Pike’s lawyers have repeatedly asked Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without parole. The governor’s Thursday statement appeared to rule out that possibility.