Death row inmate Christa Pike has described constant physical and mental pain, and near-total isolation, in her first statement since surviving a botched execution in Tennessee.
Pike, 50, remains at the Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Center, where she has been held for more than 30 years after being convicted of the 1995 murder of fellow student Colleen Slemmer.
In a statement dictated to her lawyers and released on Friday, Pike said her isolation was worsening the mental suffering associated with the 28 years she spent in solitary confinement.
“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,” she said.
Pike was taken from the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to a Nashville hospital on September 30 after two injections failed to kill her. She was unconscious, critically ill and had severe injuries to her arms.
She was discharged from hospital and returned to the Johnson centre on October 10, after her lawyers said she had regained consciousness and was able to speak. In her statement, she thanked the first responders, doctors and nurses who treated her.
Pike said she did not know why she had survived or what would happen to her next. She also said she continued to think about Ms Slemmer’s family and the “terrible pain and loss they have endured”.
“To know that so many people care about me, that they see me as a human being whose life matters, is something I cannot fully put into words,” Pike said.
Investigation into botched execution
A Tennessee judge has ordered state officials to preserve all evidence connected with the failed execution. One of Pike’s lawyers described the order as the “first of many steps to preserve and enforce her constitutional rights”.
Her legal team has argued that the attempted execution breached the US Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for the rest of 2026 while investigators examine Pike’s case and a similar failure involving another inmate in May.
Mr Lee rejected Pike’s request for clemency, which would have changed her sentence to life in prison, two days before the execution attempt. He said earlier this week that he expected her sentence to remain unchanged “unless determined otherwise by the courts”.
Pike was 18 when she, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and a third companion lured 19-year-old Ms Slemmer into a wooded area in Knoxville, where she was tortured and killed.
Pike and Shipp were convicted of first-degree murder. Shipp, who was too young to face the death penalty, received a life sentence and remains in prison. The third person involved testified against them under a plea agreement and received probation.
