Confused and in pain: US inmate Christa Pike speaks after botched execution

A United States death row inmate, Christa Pike, has released her first public statement since surviving a botched execution attempt in September, saying she continues to experience severe physical and emotional pain.

The 50-year-old said she has been in constant pain since the attempted execution, with injuries affecting her arms, hands and throat.

She added that she still struggles to speak and is recovering, although healing does not mean she is fully well.

Pike was discharged from hospital at the end of September and returned to the prison where she has spent the past 30 years following her conviction for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

She survived two injections of the lethal drug pentobarbital, which left her in critical condition. Her lawyers had earlier reported that she developed pneumonia, suffered significant swelling in her arms and experienced difficulty swallowing.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for low-income young people. Shipp avoided the death penalty because he was under 18 at the time and remains in prison.

Pike said she had not considered the possibility of surviving the execution and expressed concern over the circumstances surrounding the failed procedure.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for the remainder of the year and ordered an independent review into what happened. However, he has indicated that Pike's death sentence remains in place unless the courts decide otherwise.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not explained why the execution failed but has defended the method used. Pike's case is believed to be the only known instance of a person surviving an execution attempt by lethal injection.