Execution survivor: Christa Pike speaks out about her suffering

In a statement that she dictated to her legal team, Pike described how she entered the execution chamber at the Riverbend Correctional Facility on September 30th, prepared for death. She said she had made peace and thanked her loved ones. “I told the people who loved me, supported me, and stood by me over the years that I was grateful to them,” Pike said.

She stated that she bid farewell to those in the room with her “loving kindness.” However, a few days later, she awoke in a hospital, confused and in pain. “Since that night, there hasn’t been a moment when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My neck hurts. I still have difficulty speaking. And the pain is not just physical. My mind and my soul ache,” she explained.

Pike has been largely isolated on the prison’s infirmary since the incident, which she compares to the solitary confinement that comprised a significant portion of her 28 years in prison.

A court has ordered Tennessee authorities to secure all evidence related to the failed execution. All further executions this year have been suspended.

Christa Pike is currently the only person to have survived an attempted lethal injection execution, making her case a legal first. The family of the victim, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, had previously demanded an execution. Slemmer’s mother described the incident as a “disaster.”

Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp were 18 and 17 years old, respectively, when they beat, tortured, and killed Slemmer. They had met at a vocational training camp. Shipp avoided the death penalty because he was legally a minor at the time of the crime and remains in prison.