Lawyers for the 50-year-old inmate say she is speaking after two pentobarbital injections. Her condition and recovery timeline remain unclear.
Christa Pike, who survived a failed lethal-injection execution in Tennessee, has regained consciousness and is speaking, her lawyers said. They called the development unprecedented. Pike remains handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, and her arms were seriously injured during the pentobarbital injections, according to her attorneys.
Pike was admitted to hospital on the evening of September 30 after the execution at the Riverbend maximum-security prison in Nashville failed. She is 50. She was sentenced to death for a murder committed when she was 18. Her lawyers said her prognosis was unclear and that recovery could take a long time.
The Associated Press also reported that Pike was conscious and receiving hospital treatment. Tennessee authorities had announced a review after the failed procedure. The supplied ANSA video has no accompanying description; it is retained without a transcript or claims about its contents.