Christa Pike describes pain after failed Tennessee execution

Christa Pike said she remains in physical and emotional pain and struggles to speak, one month after surviving Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her with lethal injections. In a statement released October 30 through her legal team, Pike said she was trying to recover and had been largely isolated in the prison medical ward. Tennessee’s execution team attempted to administer two doses of pentobarbital on September 30. Pike survived and was taken to a hospital for treatment before returning to prison. She said she had prepared to die that night and woke up confused and in pain. Her statement described ongoing pain in her body, arms, hands and throat, as well as emotional distress. Pike also compared her isolation in the medical ward with the 28 years she said she spent in solitary confinement. She thanked the hospital staff who treated her and said she continued to think about the suffering of Colleen Slemmer’s family. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate. The cause of the failed execution has not been established in the reporting. Pike’s lawyers and execution physician Mark Fowler have attributed the failure to problems placing...