Christa Pike describes ongoing pain after failed execution

Christa Pike said she has remained in physical and emotional pain since waking in a hospital after Tennessee’s failed execution attempt on September 30, describing her experience in her first public statement since the procedure. Pike, 50, issued the statement through her legal team. She said she had entered the execution chamber prepared to die and had not considered what life might be like afterward. Several days later, she wrote, she woke alone in a hospital, confused and in pain. She said her body, arms, hands and throat continued to hurt and that she still struggled to speak. Pike also described emotional distress and said she had been largely isolated in the prison medical ward after returning from the hospital. She linked that isolation to the 28 years she said she had spent in solitary confinement. She said she was recovering and getting stronger, while cautioning that healing did not mean she was well. Her statement also expressed concern for the family of Colleen Slemmer, the 19-year-old classmate Pike was convicted of killing in 1995. Tennessee attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection using pentobarbital. The attempt failed, and she was taken to a hospital...