has revealed that she remains in constant pain after surviving a botched lethal injection in Tennessee last month, but says she is grateful for the love and support she has received.
In her first public statement, released through her attorneys on Friday, Pike said she had entered the execution chamber prepared to die peacefully, only to wake up alone and confused in a hospital bed.
“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,” she said.
The 50-year-old said she had never considered the possibility of living beyond her scheduled execution date.
Pike also expressed frustration over the failed execution, blaming incompetence for placing so many people in a difficult situation. However, she acknowledged the suffering of her victim’s family, saying she continued to think about their grief and loss.
Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital during an attempted execution on September 30. She was due to be executed for the 1995 murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Pike was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer alongside her boyfriend, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death in the United States.
Despite the trauma of the failed execution, Pike thanked the medical staff who saved her life and those who had offered her compassion and support.
“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,” she said.
She added that she was drawing strength from the kindness of people who had reminded her that she was not alone. Her attorneys have appealed to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment.
However, Lee told reporters earlier this week that he expected Pike’s sentence to remain unchanged unless the courts decided otherwise.
The governor has ordered an investigation into the failed execution and postponed another lethal injection that had been scheduled to take place in Tennessee this year.
Friday’s statement was dictated to Pike’s legal team from the prison infirmary, where she is currently being held.
Following the failed execution, Pike was initially taken to hospital before being transferred back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre.
With inputs from AP