Somalian Pirates Seize Iranian Fishing Vessel, Raising Fears of Attacks on Cargo Ships

By OMAR FARUK

9:25 AM EST, November 1, 2026

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali pirates have seized an Iranian fishing vessel carrying 23 people, the Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean said, warning that the ship was approaching a commercial shipping lane and could become a floating base for further attacks

The Azini was hijacked Thursday between the coastal towns of Bandar Bayla and Hafun in northeastern Somalia, a maritime security officer with the Puntland Maritime Police Force said Sunday.

The officer told The Associated Press that 12 pirates seized the vessel, which was carrying 21 Iranian crew members and two Somali security guards. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak with the media.

The crew’s safety was unknown, the center said in an alert dated Saturday. In an updated warning, it said that pirates could use the vessel as a “mother ship” to support attacks on commercial vessels.

The European Union’s naval Operation Atalanta was investigating. The center urged ships in the area to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity.

The seizure follows a resurgence of Somali piracy across the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean. By August, pirates had hijacked six commercial vessels since April, with some attacks taking place far from Somalia’s coastline. The captures included the oil products tanker Sibu 1, seized about 136 nautical miles (252 kilometers) east of al-Mukalla, Yemen.

In September, Puntland authorities said pirates killed five crew members of the tanker MT Honour 25 before security forces recovered the vessel. The tanker had been held since April. Authorities said that 16 suspected pirates were detained.

The renewed piracy adds another danger for shipping in a region already disrupted by the Iran war. Attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and threats by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi-linked shipping through Bab el-Mandeb have complicated routes used to move oil to world markets.

Those disruptions have lengthened voyages and driven up tanker costs. The AP reported in September that some oil shipments diverted around Africa faced journeys up to a month longer, while daily spot charter rates for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz had reached $1 million.

International naval patrols and improved maritime security sharply reduced Somali piracy over the past decade. The latest seizures have renewed concerns about the threat to vessels off the country’s long coastline.

The UK’s Stance on Its Role in the Slave Trade is Shifting, but Reparations Remain Off the Table

By SYLVIA HUI

7:20 PM EST, November 1, 2026

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to making a formal apology for Britain’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, a significant shift in the U.K.'s position in a long-running debate on whether — and how — the country should right the wrongs of its past.

Ahead of his meeting with Commonwealth leaders in the Caribbean this week, Burnham said it is the “right thing to do” to have an honest conversation about the legacies of slavery instead of “sticking our heads in the sand.”

While he rejected calls for the U.K. to pay reparations, Burnham proposed leading a program of debt restructuring to help the poorest countries in the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent nations that grew out of the British Empire.

His stance received a cautious welcome, but the thorny issue of repayments remains unresolved.

“An apology is an essential first step,” a trade bloc of Caribbean countries known as Caricom said in a statement Saturday in response to Burnham’s comments. “But an apology without repair is incomplete.”

The Netherlands in 2022 apologized for its role in the slave trade, but no country has paid financial reparations to nations affected by slavery or enslaved people and their descendants.

The U.K. has never formally apologized for its role in the trade, though some British institutions including the Church of England have started to own up to the parts they played.

Here’s a look at the history behind the debate and where things stand:

Britain’s role in the slave trade and its abolition

Britain became involved in the slave trade in the mid-1500s, following Portugal and Spain. At its height, Britain was the world’s biggest slave-trading nation and transported more than 3 million Africans across the Atlantic.

Goods were traded in West Africa for captured slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic to work on British sugar and tobacco plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. Goods produced in the so-called New World were transported back to England.

In the 17th century, the Royal African Company, established under King Charles II and run by his brother, who later became King James II, trafficked 80,000 African men, women and children to slavery in the Americas. About 20,000 died before the company’s monopoly on the English slave trade ended in 1698, when any Englishman could trade slaves.

An abolitionist movement arose in England in the late 1700s, supported by Quakers, some politicians and former slaves.

U.K. politicians have traditionally focused on the country’s role in banning the slave trade in 1807 and outlawing slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833, a movement that helped spur other abolitionist drives elsewhere.

But Burnham said it is now time for the country to face up to the other side of the story. “We are a country where brave people led the way in abolishing slavery, but we are also a country that participated in the trade in human lives,” he wrote in a piece in the Guardian published Friday.

Burnham rejects reparations, suggests debt relief instead

For decades, Caribbean countries have demanded reparations from Britain. Studies estimate Britain would owe between hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars in compensation to descendants of slaves.

Burnham rejected the idea, in keeping with previous U.K. governments.

“I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part,” he said.

Instead, he said he will work with other wealthy nations and investors to help poorer countries repay their high levels of debt over a longer period and at lower interest rates. Burnham said he is bringing in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to help with this work.

King Charles III, who is on a nine-day visit to the Caribbean, acknowledged “the great suffering and injustices of the past” this week.

But the king, who remains head of state of several Caribbean nations, did not go further in addressing direct demands from the region’s leaders for an apology and reparations.

Meanwhile, the opposition Conservative Party argued that Britain should not even offer an apology.

“I don’t think that Andy Burnham needs to be apologizing because it is a lever to wedge open the door to ask for cash,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Sunday.

Caribbean nations welcome prospect of an apology but maintain reparations demands

Philip J. Pierre, the prime minister of Saint Lucia and chair of Caricom, said he welcomed Burnham’s consideration of a formal apology and his offer of a “structured dialogue” with affected nations.

“No British prime minister has gone this far before ... we are ready to engage,” he wrote. But he added: “A dialogue that begins by placing reparations outside the room cannot be a complete dialogue.”

Pierre reiterated that Caribbean nations are seeking education and public health improvements; development programs for Indigenous people; repatriation and resettlement for those seeking to live in their homeland; debt cancellation and monetary compensation, among other things.

“Debt relief, however welcome, cannot be offered as a substitute for reparatory justice,” he said.

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Seeking to Block Certification of Alaska Senate Race if GOP Incumbent Loses

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and BECKY BOHRER

4:19 PM EST, November 1, 2026

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, the latest development in a ballot controversy that has roiled the final days of one of the nation’s most closely watched races.

Sullivan, an ally of President Donald Trump, faces Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, in a race that is among a handful expected to determine which party controls the Senate for the final two years of Trump’s term.

Tuesday’s ranked-choice election also includes two candidates who have done little campaigning, one of whom shares the incumbent’s name. It was that candidate’s presence on the ballot that prompted Trump to push for the lawsuit out of fear he would siphon votes from the incumbent.

Shortly after the ruling, the Justice Department filed a notice that it would appeal: “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.

The lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before the election and as early voting was underway, called for an investigation into whether votes for retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan were intended for the senator. The state said the case lacked merit and argued there would be no way to determine that without violating voter privacy.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said the relief the federal government sought was “infeasible” because many voters have already cast their ballots.

“More fundamentally, the United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified ‘investigation’ of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” she wrote.

Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee argued that the case lacked any legal basis and amounted to election interference.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for democracy and a clear message to Donald Trump and Senate Republicans: No one, no matter how powerful, can toss out free and fair elections just because they don’t like the result,” said the committee’s executive director, Devan Barber.

Peltola’s campaign hailed the ruling. “No sham investigation or baseless lawsuit from a weaponized Department of Justice is going to stop Alaskans from electing Mary on Nov. 3 so she can lower costs for Alaska’s working families,” the campaign said in a statement, alluding to a federal probe disclosed after President Donald Trump said last week that he wanted Peltola prosecuted for the scheme.

Attorneys for the state did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Senator says he expects ‘to lose a lot of votes’ to the other Dan Sullivan

The senator and his allies, including Trump, for months have portrayed Dan J. Sullivan as a sham candidate intent on confusing voters and helping Peltola.

Earlier Sunday, Sen. Sullivan told CNN that he thought the presence of the second Sullivan on the ballot would affect the election.

“I’m sure I’m going to lose a lot of votes to that trickery,” he said.

He also said he doubted claims by Peltola that she had no idea her top political aides were involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan to run as a way to confuse voters.

“There is no way this went on for a year that they weren’t informing her,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “She got caught lying, and she’s still lying to the Alaskan people, the media, to all of us.”

In the week before Election Day, The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign was involved in efforts to recruit the second Sullivan. Shortly after entering the race in June, Dan J. Sullivan said he’d had no contact with her campaign about running. He has not responded to multiple messages over the past few days.

His recent public absence prompted a social media post Sunday by the president: “The Fake Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., has DISAPPEARED! Nobody can find him, including Law Enforcement.”

Peltola’s campaign responded to the Times story by saying it had no involvement in the campaigns for either Sullivan: “I am not interested in tricking voters,” Peltola said during a recent campaign event.

In its statement indicating its plans to appeal, the Justice Department said the federal judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds but did not dispute the government’s argument that Dan J. Sullivan entered the race “as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters.”

Multiple investigations look into whether Dan J. Sullivan was recruited as a decoy candidate

State courts, including the Alaska Supreme Court, rejected an earlier Republican-backed effort to block the retired teacher from the August open primary ballot on which he appeared as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent.

Both Sullivans appear the same way on the general election ballot. Peltola placed first in the primary, followed by the senator. Dan J. Sullivan received about 2.5% of the primary vote, but that was enough to finish within the top four and qualify for the Nov. 3 ranked-choice election.

Attorneys for the Alaska Department of Law represented state elections officials in the case and asked Gleason, who was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, to toss the lawsuit. They filed a scathing response to the federal government’s complaint, calling it “meritless.”

Alaska also said the state had taken “significant steps” to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot. Voters who still might be confused could ask for help or look up candidate biographies and other information in state-distributed election pamphlets.

Republicans, including ones working with Trump, also have a long history of backing decoy candidates in elections. The governor, a Republican, has ordered an investigation and suggested he may not certify a possible Peltola victory.

In her ruling, Gleason wrote that the Trump administration’s attempt to block certification ran counter to the Constitution, which gives states the authority to run elections. She also cited the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle, which holds that federal courts should generally not change election rules too close to an election.

Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, which had filed a brief supporting the case’s dismissal, called the judge’s decision “a big win for the voters in Alaska.”

“The law is clear, and the DOJ’s case was a baseless, eleventh-hour attempt to hijack this midterm election,” she said.

On Thursday, the Justice Department escalated a criminal investigation over the presence of Dan J. Sullivan on the Alaska ballot, issuing a raft of new grand jury subpoenas, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The FBI also has begun contacting people who donated to him, some of whom told the AP that the agents were asking if they had been misled about which candidate they were supporting.

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Riccardi reported from Washington. Associated Press photographer Lindsey Wasson in Anchorage, Alaska, and AP writer Ali Swenson in Washington contributed to this report.

Flash Flooding Triggers Evacuations in Southwest and Dire Warning for Colorado Spa Town

By PHILIP MARCELO and MICHAEL CASEY

7:07 PM EST, November 1, 2026

More heavy rainfall produced flash flooding and mandatory evacuations in a wide swath of the Southwest on Sunday, including in a Colorado tourist town bracing for its main river to rise to historic levels, as weary residents in the normally arid region deal with another massive drenching.

In southwestern Colorado, officials in Pagosa Springs, a town of more than 2,000 in the Rockies located near ski resorts and known for its hot springs, warned in a Facebook post of potentially “catastrophic flooding” as the San Juan River was forecast to crest at more than 20 feet (6.1 meters) late Sunday night.

“To put the forecast into perspective, during the devastating 1911 flood that wiped out most of what existed as the town of Pagosa at that time, the San Juan River crested at approximately 17.8 feet (5.4 meters),” the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office said in a separate Facebook post. “This is a potentially catastrophic flood event.”

Officials in the tourist destination of Sedona, Arizona, ordered residents in areas near Oak Creek to leave immediately as flood waters rose rapidly and multiple people were trapped in their homes. Nearby Camp Verde also issued an evacuation order for residents living near the Verde River, West Clear Creek, and Wet Beaver Creek.

Arizona expects months’ worth of rain in a couple of days, meteorologist says

“We are getting two or three months of rain in a span of a couple of days,” said Aaron Hardin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson.

The conditions produced flash floods, river flooding and swift boat rescues in Tucson, some 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of Sedona.

The latest round of soaking rains started Saturday evening and was expected to saturate the area through Monday. The weather service estimates as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall across the region, fueled by a series of Pacific storm systems.

The weather service issued flood warnings and watches for nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado and western New Mexico, in addition to part of southern Nevada. That includes the sparsely populated Four Corners region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.

The weather service office for Salt Lake City said previous storms that soaked the area could contribute to excessive rain runoff during the latest downpours, especially in Washington County, Utah, and Zion and Capitol Reef National Parks.

“Flood prone areas will likely become inundated at times, and backcountry roads will likely become impassable from this excessive runoff,” a weather service statement said.

Highway into Colorado tourist town closed to all except evacuees

Officials in Pagosa Springs said anyone in low-lying areas along the San Juan, Rio Blanco, Navajo and Piedra rivers should head to a designated shelter at a local church.

They advised residents not to wait to leave their homes as emergency crews may be extremely limited during the worst of the storm. The highway entering town also was closed to inbound traffic, and residents were advised to avoid contact with the San Juan River after sewage was discharged into it.

Katie German, owner and chef of Bruin Coffee in Pagosa Springs, said downtown had been evacuated and that there was street flooding. German said she was most worried about the one bridge into town washing out and trucks carrying everything from food to fuel not having a way in.

Town officials had just lifted an evacuation order from flooding last week only to reimpose it Saturday night with the San Juan forecast to crest Sunday night at 21.9 feet (6.7 meters), according to Vicki Shaffer, public information officer working the floods for the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m worried about my business, worried about my employees, definitely worried for everybody in this town,” German said. “This town, we’re a very, very, tight community. We all help each other out.”

Officials in La Plata County, which is west of Pagosa Springs, said all public roads were closed due to the flooding.

Sedona officials rescue residents trapped in homes

In Sedona, longtime resident Michelle Grimm worried about her community after viewing the rushing waters of Oak Creek rising perilously close to the underside of a pedestrian bridge near the center of town.

“I went out at eight this morning and I saw the bridge and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re in trouble,’” she said as she sheltered in place in her home Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve never seen them rescuing people with helicopters out of neighborhoods. I’ve never seen neighborhoods completely submerged in water,” Grimm said. “We’re just praying that the creek doesn’t rise anymore.”

Sedona officials on Sunday ordered residents living in affected areas to head to Sedona Red Rock High School, but they urged people not to attempt to drive across roads with rushing waters and to stay away from creek beds and washes.

Heavy rains forced the closure of several highways across Arizona, the state Department of Transportation reported.

Sedona Fire District Chief Ed Mezulis said in a short clip posted on Facebook that emergency crews from surrounding communities were coming in to assist as local fire and police officials were already responding to multiple reports of residents trapped in their homes.

“Please stay at high ground, watch your alerts and be careful,” he advised.

A video shared by the fire department showed powerful flood waters inundating vehicles and rushing past homes and other structures. Other videos and photos shared on social media showed people standing on a pedestrian bridge taking photos and videos as churning, brown waters rushed underneath.

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Marcelo reported from New York and Casey from Boston. Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.

Mass Shootings Over Halloween Weekend Leave at Least 6 Dead and Dozens Injured Across US

By JOHN RABY

Mass shootings over the Halloween weekend in nightlife districts across the U.S. left at least six people dead and dozens injured, officials said.

The deadliest violence occurred in Dallas, where a handful of shootings in the city’s Deep Ellum neighborhood, a center of music, restaurants and nightlife, killed four people and injured 15 others, police said.

Police in college towns like Fayetteville, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Newark, Delaware, and Bloomington, Illinois, also reported shootings in their nightlife districts.

Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said investigators were still trying to determine if three separate shootings Saturday night over the span of about an hour and 15 minutes were related, and it wasn’t immediately known why they started. Comeaux said some arrests were made but he didn’t specify how many or what charges were involved.

“This is a really big scene. It’s spread out,” Comeaux said.

The department had increased police presence in the district before the shootings. No police officers were injured.

One shooting happened after a football game in Alabama

In Birmingham, one person was killed and eight others were wounded in two separate shootings just outside Legion Field after the annual ‘Magic City Classic’ football game on Saturday night, Mayor Randall Woodfin said at a news conference Sunday.

Two were listed in critical condition Sunday, fire officials said.

Alabama State and Alabama A&M are archrivals whose annual contest has been played for more than 100 years. Nearly 70,000 fans attended Saturday’s game, won by Alabama A&M 31-28. The event draws some of the largest crowds in the country for games played in their college football division.

Michael Pickett, chief of the Birmingham Police Department, said most spectators and families had left the stadium property after the game. The first shooting happened nearby, where vendors were set up along Graymont Avenue.

The circumstances of the shootings were unclear, and it was also unclear where the fatality occurred.

Police spokesperson De’Rell Freeman said one person had been detained and that “multiple weapons” were found.

Shootings in other nightlife districts

In Newark, Delaware, six people were shot late Saturday near the University of Delaware campus, Newark police Lt. Greg D’Elia said.

All six were transported to hospitals for treatment and their conditions were not available. A university spokesperson said they would provide updates on the investigation online as they become available.

Video shared on social media showed people running for safety from the scene. One stretch of the city’s Main Street was closed for several hours after the shooting, police said.

A shooting early Sunday in Bloomington, Illinois, left a 19-year-old woman dead and another woman in critical condition. Six others had injuries of an unknown nature that were not life-threatening. The shooting happened near the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Bloomington is about 135 miles (217 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

In Fayetteville, Arkansas, six people were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds from a shooting early Sunday near the University of Arkansas. No arrests have been made, police said in a news release. A preliminary investigation indicates an altercation preceded the shooting.

Halloween stores were the scene of two attacks

On Friday, two people were killed in separate shootings at Spirit Halloween stores in California and Michigan.

Police said a shooting inside a store in Fairfield, California was a targeted attack. Family members told police that the 31-year-old woman who died was pregnant. Six other people were wounded, police said. There were no immediate arrests.

In Madison Heights, Michigan, just north of Detroit, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot Friday afternoon. A man who was assaulted by bystanders as officers took him into custody was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. AP reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

All 9 People Aboard a Jet that Crashed in Florida Have Died, Transportation Secretary Says

6:43 PM EST, November 1, 2026

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A business jet carrying nine people nose-dived into a South Florida neighborhood Sunday and erupted into a giant fireball that appeared to just miss homes before crashing near a busy roadway. Everyone on board was killed, the nation’s transportation secretary said.

Video recorded by people inside their cars captured the terrifying moment the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky, before striking near the roadway and exploding. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as people milled about, expressing shock that it landed only feet from homes and inches from passing vehicles. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County at 12:50 p.m. and called it a “horrific tragedy.” The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed.

“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”

Rain pounded the region on Sunday. A flood watch due to excessive rainfall was in effect through Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities did not immediately say what caused the jet to go down or who was on it.

The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (about 11 kilometers) when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb 2,000 feet (about 610 meters).

Moments later, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data.

A pilot declared an emergency and issued distress calls. The plane banked sharply to the right before it crashed steeply into the ground.

Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.

“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.

But the situation rapidly deteriorated. After encountering precipitation and requesting to climb, the pilot declared an emergency as the aircraft began losing altitude at an alarming rate.

“We’re descending 8,000 – mayday, mayday - we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.

“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was about to happen. “We’re going to crash into the ground.”

Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. He could not immediately provide details about who was on the flight.

Palm Beach County authorities are evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while federal officials investigate the crash. The road will be closed until further notice, county officials said.

The crash occurred in Greenacres, Florida, according to Palm Beach County sheriff’s officials. The city of 45,000 people is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach.

Christa Pike Describes Constant Pain in First Statement Since Her Failed Execution

By KIM CHANDLER

5:28 PM EST, October 30, 2026

Christa Pike said Friday she remains in constant pain, struggles to speak and has been largely isolated in a prison hospital after surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month.

In her first public statement since, Pike said she’s “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.”

“I continue to think about my victim’s family,” she said, “and the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”

Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Slemmer’s mother traveled from Florida to witness Pike’s execution.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital that her lawyers say probably didn’t enter her bloodstream correctly and instead pooled in her arms, leaving them burned and blistered. Unconscious, she was hospitalized on a ventilator for days, and at one point her lawyers said they didn’t expect her to survive.

“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak,” Pike said. “And the pain isn’t just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”

Pike said she had been prepared to die in peace, but instead woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed. She said she’s “searching for meaning in what happened to me.”

“I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what comes next,” Pike said in a statement dictated to her legal team from prison.

Pike remains sentenced to die, and her attorneys want Republican Gov. Bill Lee to change that to life in prison. However, Lee told reporters this week, “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”

The governor has tapped a former U.S. attorney to conduct an independent review of the failed execution and postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled for this year.

Pike’s attorneys, meanwhile, asked a federal judge Friday to allow her to interact with other prisoners instead of being isolated in the infirmary. They said her isolation violates a 2024 agreement that ended her mostly solitary confinement and allowed her to work, eat, exercise and have social contact with other women.

“Her renewed isolation has caused, and will continue to cause, significant psychological harm and trauma,” Pike’s legal team wrote.

Pike’s lethal injection was plagued by problems. Her attorneys had warned that her small veins and diagnosis of thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting disorder, could make IV access difficult.

In a court document, her attorney Randy Spivey said the execution team struggled to get working IV lines in Pike’s arms and expressed concern that a vein might be “blowing.” Pike remained awake for much of the lethal injection, saying her arm hurt and burned before falling unconscious. The execution began just before 7:30 p.m. and an ambulance arrived at the prison about an hour and 45 minutes later.

The failed execution has brought renewed scrutiny to how Tennessee carries out death sentences.

In a 2025 deposition released with court documents this week, prison Warden Kenneth Nelson said the execution team doesn’t practice inserting IV lines during training sessions, at the directive of the prison commissioner. Nelson said he did not know why the practice was discontinued or when the order was given.

Practicing insertion of IVs was part of Tennessee’s prior execution protocol, but it is not included in the state’s new protocol.

Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said she could not comment on the filing because of pending litigation.

Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, announced his resignation in the wake of Pike’s failed execution. The governor named Christopher Hansen as interim commissioner.