Christa Pike Reports Ongoing Pain After Failed Execution

Christa Pike says she remains in constant pain and struggles to speak a month after Tennessee officials abandoned an attempt to execute her when she continued breathing after two doses of pentobarbital. In a statement dictated to her legal team on October 30, Pike described physical and emotional effects following the September 30 procedure. Pike said she has not been free of pain since waking in a hospital and that her arms, hands and throat hurt. She also described emotional distress and said she was deeply hurt by what she called incompetence in the execution attempt. Her comments are her account of her condition and the procedure. She expressed concern for the family of Colleen Slemmer, whom Pike was convicted of killing in 1996. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted in connection with Slemmer’s 1995 death. Slemmer was 19 and a fellow student at a job-training program in Knoxville. Shipp was sentenced to life without parole and was ineligible for the death penalty because he was 17 when the crime occurred. During the September 30 execution attempt, officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike continued breathing and the procedure was...