Christa Pike woke up days after two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her, and now she says ‘there hasn’t been a moment’ since without pain

Christa Pike has broken her silence after surviving a botched lethal injection in Tennessee, describing persistent physical pain and psychological trauma, as reported by VT. “There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” she said in a statement dictated to her legal team.

The 50-year-old death row inmate was scheduled for execution on September 30 at Riverbend men’s prison. Her execution failed after she was given two separate doses of pentobarbital, a drug intended to end her life. Pike’s attorneys called her survival “against all odds” and “medically unprecedented.”

In the statement, Pike said she went into the execution chamber fully expecting to die. Instead, she woke up several days later in a medical facility. Following the failed procedure, she had been rushed to a hospital in critical condition, placed on a ventilator, and eventually regained consciousness.

Pike says the pain is not only physical

Pike detailed the impact of the two doses, saying her body, arms, hands, and throat hurt and that she still struggles to speak. She said the pain extends to her mind and soul, and that she had not contemplated life beyond that night.

Pike said she is deeply hurt by what she called the incompetence that put so many people in a terrible position. She added that she continues to think about her victim’s family and the pain and loss they have endured.

She also thanked the hospital staff who cared for her after the emergency transfer, along with her defense attorneys. While she is slowly regaining strength, she said “healing is not the same as being okay” and described herself as searching for meaning in what happened to her. Pike remains in the prison medical ward, where the renewed isolation mirrors the nearly three decades she previously spent in solitary confinement.

The procedure marks the second failed execution in Tennessee in 2026. Pike’s legal team has said staff used up to 10 needles while trying to set her IV lines. In response to the failure, Governor Bill Lee suspended all remaining executions scheduled for the year and launched an official investigation into the procedures. Corrections officials have not announced whether they intend to set another execution date for Pike.

Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was convicted in 1996 in Knoxville. She and her teenage boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were found guilty of torturing and killing their 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job training facility in 1995. Shipp was 17 at the time and received a life sentence that carries the possibility of parole, while Pike was 18.

Pike does not deny her involvement in the killing, but her defense attorneys and advocates have argued that her sentence should reflect her youth, history of severe childhood sexual abuse, and documented psychiatric conditions. Following the crime, medical professionals diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Had the September procedure been carried out, she would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.