US inmate Christa Pike says she woke up 'confused and in pain' after failed execution
It is Pike's first public statement since she survived an execution attempt by lethal injection in September.
US death row inmate Christa Pike has issued her first public statement since her botched execution in September.
“There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain,” she said in a statement released on social media by her legal team on Friday.
“My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. 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 released from hospital at the end of last month after surviving two lethal injections of pentobarbital, which left her in a critical condition.
She has since been returned to the prison where she has spent the past 30 years for the murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Pike is believed to be the only person to have survived an execution attempt by lethal injection.
Her lawyers had previously said she developed pneumonia after the attempted execution, had major swelling in her arms and was also unable to swallow.
“I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger,” she said in Friday’s statement. “But healing is not the same as being okay.”
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for low-income young people.
Shipp avoided the death penalty because he was not legally an adult when the crime was committed. He is still in prison.