Christa Pike has finally spoken after her botched execution, sharing how she is recovering.
Pike was to be executed on Sept. 30 after she was found guilty of stabbing a classmate to death in 1995, when she was 18 years old, The Associated Press reported.
She was given two doses of pentobarbital, but she survived.
Pike said she lived after the lethal injections because of “incompetence.”
“I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position,” she said. “I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”
She said she was prepared to die but woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed.
Pike also said she has been in constant pain.
“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. 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 said.
“I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what comes next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others. For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time. And I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone,” she said.
Pike was taken back to prison after spending 10 days in the hospital. She is still receiving medical care, CNN reported.
She has been held in the prison’s medical ward, isolated from the rest of the population.
“That isolation brings its own kind of pain. I spent 28 years in solitary confinement and much of what I am experiencing today is a repeat of that condition,” Pike said, according to CNN.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has called for an investigation and has postponed another lethal injection execution scheduled for this year.
Her attorneys have asked Lee to change her sentence to life in prison, but Lee said, “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts,” the AP reported.
CNN said Pike is the only person to survive a lethal injection execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.