Murderess Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate who survived despite receiving two doses of lethal injection last month, said she is living with pain in her mind and soul over the botched execution.
Ms Pike, 50, said she didn’t anticipate living beyond September 30 but that the government’s incompetence in failing to carry out her execution has now left her mind and soul bleeding.
“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” Ms Pike said in a statement 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.”
Ms Pike was injected in her arms with pentobarbital, a drug used in state executions. She was hospitalised for days and was subsequently discharged after her health improved. But she said she had yet to fully recover psychologically.
“I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger,” Ms Pike said. “But healing is not the same as being okay.”
The death row inmate said she had not anticipated surviving beyond September 30, the date of her botched execution.
“I had not contemplated life beyond that night,” Ms Pike said. “I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.”
Ms Pike is a murderess who colluded with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, to kill 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the 1990s.
Mr Shipp was a minor at the time; hence, he escaped the death penalty. He remains in prison.
The botched execution drew scrutiny and triggered the resignation of corrections commissioner Frank Strada, who oversaw the incident. He will exit the role by the end of October.
