Christa Pike, who survived a failed execution, is conscious and speaking
US death row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after a failed execution attempt in Tennessee, her lawyers say. She remains in hospital and her prognosis is unclear.
Christa Pike, a death row inmate in Tennessee, is conscious and able to speak following last week's failed execution, her lawyers said on Tuesday. Pike, 50, continues to receive critical medical care in hospital, where she is handcuffed.
She was convicted of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. During last Wednesday's procedure she was given two lethal injections but survived, and was taken to a hospital in Nashville. Her lawyers said that in the first days afterwards she was unconscious while medical staff cleared the pentobarbital from her body.
Her attorneys described her recovery as "medically unprecedented" and said her prognosis remains unclear, though they expect at least a long recovery. They said she is the only person known to have survived a completed execution attempt in the US, and that she has suffered severe damage to her arms.
Authorities silent
Officials have not said whether they will try to execute Pike again, nor have they explained what went wrong. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions for the rest of the year, and the state's head of prisons said over the weekend that he plans to resign.
Medical explanation
Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike's defence team, said the two doses of pentobarbital would have been fatal had they entered her bloodstream in normal circulation. He suggested the drug more likely spread through the tissue under her skin instead. He also said a brain injury is possible, since resuscitation was not begun immediately.
Her lawyers had previously warned that her medical history and anatomy, including thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting condition, and small veins, created a risk of unnecessary pain and suffering during a lethal injection.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they had met at a job training camp for troubled teens.
