Pike reports constant pain after survival

Christa Pike has been in constant pain since surviving a botched lethal injection in Tennessee last month, the death row inmate said Friday. In her first public statement since the failed execution, Pike described struggling to speak and being largely isolated in a prison hospital.

Pike, 50, said she is “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.” She added that she continues to think about the family of her victim, Colleen Slemmer, and the loss they have endured. Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death.

Her attorneys say two doses of pentobarbital likely pooled in her arms instead of entering her bloodstream correctly. This left her arms burned and blistered. Pike was unconscious and hospitalized on a ventilator for days. Her lawyers stated at one point they did not expect her to survive. Pike said she was prepared to die in peace but woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed. She is now “searching for meaning in what happened to me.”

The execution began just before 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 20. An ambulance arrived at the prison about an hour and 45 minutes later. Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey said the execution team struggled to get working IV lines and expressed concern that a vein might be “blowing.” Pike remained awake for much of the process, reporting that her arm hurt and burned before falling unconscious. Her lawyers had previously warned that her small veins and a blood-clotting diagnosis could make IV access difficult.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee told reporters this week he suspects Pike’s sentence will remain unchanged unless courts rule otherwise. Lee has tapped a former U.S. attorney to conduct an independent review of the failed execution. The governor also postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled for this year.

Prison Warden Kenneth Nelson said in a 2025 deposition that the execution team does not practice inserting IV lines during training. Nelson said he did not know why the practice was discontinued or when the order was given. The prior protocol included practicing IV insertion, but the new protocol does not. Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, announced his resignation. His final day is Oct. 31.

Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said she could not comment on the filing because of pending litigation.