Christa Pike says she feels constant pain in her first statement since failed execution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT/AP) - Christa Pike said she is in constant pain since surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month but thankful for the love and support she has received.

Pike issued her first public statement through her attorneys on Friday. She said she went into the execution chamber prepared to die in peace and woke 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,” Pike said.

Pike said she had not contemplated a life beyond her execution date.

“I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position. I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured,” Pike said.

She said she is thankful for the medical workers who saved her life and the people who showed her kindness.

“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 convicted in 1996 in the “Jobs Corps Murder,” a name that came about because both Pike and the victim — 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer — were members of the Jobs Corps at the time of the girl’s 1995 killing.

Prosecutors and testimony have said Pike conspired with two others, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, to kill Slemmer over relationship issues.

It was discovered throughout the case that the offenders had carved a pentacle into Slemmer’s chest and taken a piece of her skull as a souvenir of the grisly murder.