Christa Pike breaks silence one month after surviving botched lethal injection

Christa Pike has spoken out 30 days after her botched execution in Tennessee, revealing she has been in constant pain ever since the failed procedure.

The killer, 50, defied the odds in extraordinary circumstances, surviving an execution attempt that was supposed to end her life on September 30.

Instead, Pike was rushed to hospital for life-saving treatment, and has now spoken out for the first time since the historic attempt to end her life.

Having regained consciousness just days after receiving the lethal injection, Pike says her entire body is in pain following the ordeal, including her mind.

"There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain," she said, in a statement issued by her legal team.

"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."

The death row inmate added: "I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger. But healing is not the same as being okay."

Pike was 18 years old when she murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. (TDOC)

Prior to losing consciousness on the fateful day, her attorneys say that she complained her arms were 'burning' as officials tried to kill her via the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital.

Speaking about life in the weeks after the failed attempt, Pike added: "I had not contemplated life beyond that night. And I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position."

Following the ordeal, a department spokesperson said that officials administering the injection had 'followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office' and that 'the lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective'.

Every execution scheduled to take place in the state this year has now been delayed.

She survived two doses of the lethal injection. (WTVF)

While Pike's fate remains uncertain, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee addressed the case earlier this week, refusing to rule out the possibility that the inmate could face another execution attempt.

Speaking with reporters, he said: "I suspect her sentence will be the same as before, unless determined otherwise by the courts."

Pike was found guilty of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps training centre in Knoxville, Tennessee, more than three decades ago.

She was sentenced to death in 1996, becoming the youngest woman on death row in the US at the time.