Christa Pike has marked a month since her failed execution by Tennessee and released a statement in which she laments the “incompetence” that has led to this moment, adding that despite ongoing healing she remains in constant physical pain and mental anguish.
asserted
she → mark → pain
In comments released by her legal team on Friday, the prisoner said that there had not been a moment since she was injected with a massive dose of the sedative pentobarbital that she had not been in pain.
asserted
she → release → pain
“My body hurts.
asserted
body → hurt → ?
My arms hurt.
asserted
arms → hurt → ?
My hands hurt.
asserted
hands → hurt → ?
My throat hurts.
asserted
throat → hurt → ?
I still struggle to speak.
asserted
I → struggle → ?
There is pain in my mind and in my soul,” she said.
asserted
she → be → soul
Though she does not mention the state authorities who tried to kill her a month ago by injecting a full 5g of pentobarbital into her arms, she does make a pointed criticism clearly targeted at them.
asserted
she → mention → them
“I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position,” she said.
asserted
she → hurt → position
Pike was strapped to a gurney in the Tennessee execution chamber on 30 September, facing death for the 1995 murder of a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, when she was 18.
asserted
she → strap → classmate
Members of the execution team spent almost an hour trying to establish an intravenous line through which to pump the sedative, but the procedure was botched and the prisoner survived.
asserted
prisoner → spend → sedative
Medical experts told the Guardian they were shocked by the apparent level of incompetence displayed in the execution chamber, after a blow-by-blow account of events was released by Pike’s lawyer, who was present in the room.
asserted
who → tell → room
Pike is being held in the infirmary at the Debra Johnson rehabilitation center in Nashville, where she was returned after 10 days of intensive hospital treatment.
asserted
she → hold → treatment
She is being kept largely in solitary confinement, she said, “away from other people and the human connections that mean so much to me”.
asserted
that → keep → me
Such isolation was its own form of pain, she said, given that she spent the first 28 years on death row in solitary confinement.
asserted
she → say → confinement
The events of 30 September have roiled Tennessee and sent shock waves across the US.
asserted
events → roil → US
The Republican governor of the state, Bill Lee, has ordered a pause on further executions until an outside review is conducted.
asserted
review → order → executions
It is not clear what Tennessee intends to do with Pike.
asserted
Tennessee → intend → Pike
Earlier this week, Lee said he expected her death sentence to remain the same unless the courts determine otherwise.
asserted
courts → say → ?
Pike, dictating her statement to her lawyers, said that she had been prepared to die that night.
asserted
she → dictate → lawyers
“I had made my peace.”
asserted
I → make → peace
Since she awoke, “alone in a hospital confused and in pain”, she has been searching for meaning about what happened to her.
asserted
what → awake → her
“I don’t know why I survived that night.
asserted
I → know → night
I don’t know what comes next.
asserted
what → know → ?
Some days, finding hope is harder than others.
asserted
finding → find → others
For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time.”
asserted
I → try → time
She said in her slow road to recovery she drew sustenance from the “extraordinary love and support I have received from people around the world.
asserted
I → say → world
To know that so many people care about me, that they see me as a human being whose life matters, is humbling.”
asserted
life → know → being
She thanked the first responders, doctors and nurses who cared for her in hospital, as well as her attorneys and those who “fought for me, stood beside me and refused to give up on me”.
asserted
who → thank → me
She added: “I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone.”
asserted
I → add → me
The Aporia
