Christa Pike says she is in pain after failed execution

Christa Pike, a convicted murderer on death row in Tennessee, said Friday that she has been in constant pain since surviving a failed execution attempt a month earlier.

"There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said in a statement released by her lawyers. She said her body, arms, hands and throat hurt and that she still struggles to speak.

Pike, 50, was given two doses of pentobarbital at a state prison on September 30. The dose is usually fatal, but it did not kill her. She was taken to hospital in critical condition and later returned to prison after medical treatment.

The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the only inmate to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs.

Pike was sentenced to death in Tennessee for the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.

Since the failed execution, Pike's lawyers have called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Lee has suspended executions in Tennessee pending an independent investigation. Asked about Pike this week, Lee said he suspected her sentence would remain the same unless courts decided otherwise.

There have been 32 executions in the United States this year, all by lethal injection. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while California, Oregon and Pennsylvania have moratoriums in place.