Christa Pike, the Tennessee death-row inmate who survived the state's attempt to execute her on Sept. 30, is conscious and speaking after days on a ventilator, her lawyers said Tuesday. Pike, 50, endured what her attorneys describe as a botched lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, surviving two full doses of pentobarbital.
Had the execution proceeded, Pike would have been the first woman put to death in Tennessee in 200 years. Her attorneys say she regained consciousness but suffered badly damaged arms from repeated IV attempts, and her prognosis remains unclear.
A Davidson County court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday on the defence's request to preserve evidence for a potential cruel-and-unusual-punishment claim - a case that could have far-reaching implications for how states carry out lethal injections.
The failed execution has already intensified national scrutiny of Tennessee's death-penalty protocols. State officials have said little publicly about what went wrong in the execution chamber, and the coming court fight is expected to force those details into the open.
