Tennessee execution survivor Christa Pike reports ongoing pain after botched lethal injection

Christa Pike, 50, survived a botched lethal injection at a Tennessee prison on September 30 and has spoken publicly for the first time. In a statement released through her legal team, she said she experiences "constant pain" that is both physical and emotional and that she struggles to speak.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for her role in a 1995 murder when she was 18, remains on death row and is currently held in solitary confinement. Her attorneys have asked a federal judge to permit her to interact with other inmates, arguing that isolation has caused "significant psychological harm and trauma," and have also urged Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment.

The legal team attributes the failed execution to two doses of phenobarbital that did not enter Pike's bloodstream, instead pooling in her arms and causing burns and blisters. Pike was hospitalized and unconscious for several days after the incident.

Governor Lee said he "suspects" Pike's sentence will remain unchanged unless a court decides otherwise. The incident has prompted an independent review of Tennessee's execution protocols and the postponement of another scheduled lethal injection.

"There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain," Pike said. "I had not contemplated life beyond that night, and I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position," she added. "I continue to think about the victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured," Pike said.