US inmate who survived execution says she’s in constant pain

This handout picture dated January 12, 2023 provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows convicted US murderer Christa Pike. Photo by HANDOUT / TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION / AFP

Convicted murderer Christa Pike said Friday that she is in constant pain, a month after surviving a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee.

“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” Pike said in a statement released by her lawyers.

“My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts,” she said. “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 given two doses of the drug pentobarbital at a state prison on September 30 — a usually fatal dose that nevertheless failed to kill her.

She was transported to hospital in critical condition and returned to prison after receiving medical treatment.

Pike is the only inmate to ever survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

Pike was sentenced to death in Tennessee after she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.

In her statement, Pike said she is recovering “but healing is not the same as being okay.”

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“I don’t know why I survived that night,” she said. “I don’t know what comes next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time.”

Since the botched execution, Pike’s lawyers have repeatedly called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison.

Lee, a Republican, has suspended executions in Tennessee pending an independent investigation.

Asked by reporters this week about Pike’s fate, Lee said: “I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”

There have been 32 executions in the United States this year, all by lethal injection.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

AFP