Christine Pike said Friday that she was in constant pain, had difficulty speaking and had been largely isolated in a prison hospital after survive a lethal injection in Tennessee last month.
In her first public statement since, Pike said she was “deeply hurt by the incompetence that put so many people in this terrible situation.”
“I continue to think about my victim’s family,” she said, “and the terrible pain and loss they endured. »
Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed to death a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women on death row. Slemmer’s mother came from Florida to witness Pike’s execution.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital which, according to his lawyers, probably did not enter his bloodstream properly and instead accumulated in his arms, leaving them burned and blistered. Unconscious, she was hospitalized on a ventilator for several days, and at one point her lawyers said they did not expect her to survive.
“There hasn’t been a moment since that night that I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still have trouble speaking,” Pike said. “And the pain is not just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”
Pike said she was ready to die peacefully, but woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed. She said she was “searching for meaning in what happened to me.”
“I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what’s next,” Pike said in a statement dictated to his legal team from prison.
Pike remains on death row, and her lawyers want Republican Gov. Bill Lee to change that to life in prison. However, Lee told reporters this week: “I suspect his sentence will be the same as before unless the courts decide otherwise.” »
The governor tapped a former U.S. attorney to lead an independent investigation into the failed execution and postponed another lethal injection planned for this year in the state.
Pike’s lawyers, meanwhile, asked a federal judge Friday to allow her to interact with other prisoners instead of being isolated in the infirmary. They said her isolation violated a 2024 agreement that ended her solitary confinement and allowed her to work, eat, exercise and have social contact with other women.
“His renewed isolation has caused, and will continue to cause, significant psychological harm and trauma,” Pike’s legal team wrote.
Pike’s lethal injection has been plagued with problems. His lawyers had warned that his small veins and diagnosis of thrombocytosis, a blood clotting disorder, could make intravenous access difficult.
In a court document, his attorney, Randy Spivey, said the execution team had difficulty running intravenous lines in Pike’s arms and expressed fear that a vein might “explode.” Pike remained awake for much of the lethal injection, saying her arm hurt and burned before she lost consciousness. The execution began shortly before 7:30 p.m. and an ambulance arrived at the prison about an hour and 45 minutes later.
The failed execution has sparked new scrutiny of how Tennessee carries out death sentences.
In a 2025 deposition released this week with court documents, prison warden Kenneth Nelson said the execution team did not practice inserting IV lines during training sessions, as directed by the prison commissioner. Nelson said he did not know why the practice was stopped or when the order was given.
The practice of inserting IVs was part of Tennessee’s previous execution protocol, but it is not included in the state’s new protocol.
Dorinda Carter, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, said she could not comment on the case because of pending litigation.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, announced his resignation following the failed execution of Pike. The governor named Christopher Hansen as acting commissioner.
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