"I was ready for death" – the American woman who survived her execution speaks publicly for the first time.

Christa Pike, following a failed execution in Tennessee, expressed ongoing physical and emotional pain in her first statement. She described waking up alone in a hospital after the execution attempt, feeling confused and in agony. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, and was to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. After the botched execution, she was hospitalized and later returned to prison, where she continues to receive treatment. Pike's lawyers are working to prevent a second execution attempt. The state's prison warden announced his resignation shortly after the incident, and executions in Tennessee have been suspended.