Tennessee Inmate Christa Pike: One Month After Survival, She Reports Constant Pain

Christa Pike has spoken publicly for the first time in a month.

The 50-year-old inmate, who survived a lethal injection attempt in Tennessee on Sept. 30, said she has experienced pain continuously since regaining consciousness in a hospital.

Pike dictated her statement to her legal team. She said she entered the execution chamber after saying goodbye to her loved ones. "I had not contemplated life beyond that night," she wrote.

She described waking up alone and confused several days 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 added that the suffering is not only physical, noting pain in her mind and soul.

Medical updates released earlier this month detailed her condition. Her attorneys reported that she suffered from pneumonia and a blood clot. She was unable to swallow or move her arms or hands after waking. One lawyer described her hands as looking like a blown-up surgical glove. She was discharged from the hospital to the prison on Oct. 10 to continue treatment.

Pike was convicted in 1995 of the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate. Court filings state that Pike, then 18, tortured and killed Slemmer with a meat cleaver and box cutter on the University of Tennessee campus. Her boyfriend and a friend assisted in the crime.

The Sept. 30 execution was a procedural anomaly. The team administered two doses of pentobarbital. Witnesses reported hearing Pike snoring loudly about an hour after the procedure began. She was transported to a local ambulance service. According to court documents, her veins may have ruptured before the drug was fully administered. Her lawyer said the team used about 10 needles and attempted several IV sites on both arms.

Pike is the only person in the United States known to have survived an execution attempt where the drug was administered, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Other halted executions have typically involved difficulties finding a vein.

The state has faced questions about its lethal injection protocol this year. Tony Carruthers was granted a one-year reprieve after the execution team spent over an hour trying to establish an IV line. Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in Tennessee through the end of the year.

Lee told reporters on Wednesday that he suspected Pike's sentence would remain unchanged unless the courts ruled otherwise. "I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts," he said.

Pike's legal team is seeking to preserve evidence from the botched execution. A court hearing on Oct. 7 granted the petition to keep all related evidence. A follow-up hearing scheduled for Oct. 23 was canceled while the judge reviews multiple motions. Steve Ferrell, her lawyer, suggested on Oct. 5 that the state should consider commuting her sentence. "The least that could happen now is that we at least take death off the table," Ferrell told CBS Mornings.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this month found that one-third of Americans support a second attempt to execute Pike.