A Tennessee death-row inmate has survived a botched lethal injection and is now conscious and speaking, nearly a week after her scheduled execution.
Christa Pike was taken to hospital and placed on a ventilator after executioners administered two doses of pentobarbital but failed to kill her.
Her lawyers say she is now conscious and communicating, but remains seriously ill and faces a potentially long recovery.
The execution team reportedly struggled for about an hour to establish an IV line, using at least seven needles. Pike’s attorneys had warned authorities beforehand about difficulties accessing her veins.
Tennessee officials maintain that the execution followed the state’s approved lethal-injection protocol. However, there is no provision in the protocol for what happens when a second injection fails.
Governor Bill Lee has suspended the state’s next scheduled execution and ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.
Pike was sentenced to death for killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Her attorneys are now asking the governor to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without parole.
