Pike thought to be only survivor of a lethal-injection execution
Christa Pike, the US death row inmate who survived two lethal injections of the drug pentobarbital in September, has released her first public statement since the failed execution.
“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” Pike said in the statement, which her legal team released on social media on Friday.
“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, 50, was discharged from hospital at the end of last month after the two injections left her in a critical condition. She has since been sent back to the prison where she has spent the last 30 years for murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Pike is thought to be the only person to have survived an execution attempt by lethal injection. Her lawyers previously said she had suffered from pneumonia following the attempted execution, had significant swelling on her arms and was also unable to swallow.
“I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger,” she said in the statement. “But healing is not the same as being okay.”
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for low-income young people.
Shipp was spared the death penalty because he was not legally an adult when the crime was committed. He remains in prison.