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Christa Pike Breaks Her Silence One Month After Reported Botched Execution — “Pain in My Mind and Soul”

Posted by Team - October 31, 2026

Christa Pike Breaks Silence 1 Month After Surviving Botched Execution: ‘Pain in My Mind and Soul’

Pike described the physical and emotional pain she continues to experience one month after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her

Christa Pike has spoken out for the first time since her botched execution.

Pike’s statement was released by her attorneys and shared with PEOPLE.

“One month ago on September 30, I walked into the execution chamber at Riverbend men’s prison prepared to die,” she said in the statement. “I had made my peace. I had told the people who loved me, supported me and stood by me through the years I was grateful for them. I had also told the people in the room and who were there to witness my execution that I was leaving them in loving kindness.”

“Several days later I woke up alone in a hospital confused and in pain,” the statement continued. “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 she was “deeply hurt by the incompetence” surrounding the failed execution but was also thinking about her victim’s family and “the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”

The state of Tennessee was set to execute Pike on Sept. 30. But despite two doses of pentobarbital, she survived and the execution was aborted.

Pike was hospitalized in the aftermath and remained in critical condition for several days.

“I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger. But healing is not the same as being okay,” Pike said in her statement. “Since that night, I have been largely isolated in the prison’s medical ward, away from other people and the human connections that mean so much to me.”

Tennessee has subsequently paused executions in the state as it investigates what went wrong with Pike’s failed execution.

It is not yet clear if Pike will again face execution after the state’s previous failed attempt.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she killed when she was 18.

In her statement, Pike said she is now “searching for meaning” in the failed execution and that she has been “overwhelmed” by the support she has received since then. She further thanked first responders and hospital staff who treated her.

“I don’t know why I survived that night,” Pike said. “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.”

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Christa Pike Breaks Silence 1 Month After Surviving Botched Execution: ‘Pain in My Mind and Soul’ Pike described the physical and emotional pain she continues to experience…

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