US inmate conscious after failed execution

Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking after surviving a failed execution, her lawyers said. Pike received two supposedly lethal doses of the drug pentobarbital at a Tennessee prison a week ago.

Despite the injections, Pike survived and was rushed to hospital, where she had been unconscious and on a ventilator in critical condition. Her lawyers said she is now 'conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care'.

Pike's lawyers repeated a call for Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Lee suspended the carrying out of capital punishment in the state following the failed execution pending an independent investigation.

Pike's case has sparked debate over the death penalty for young offenders, as she was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp in 1995. Pike's lawyers sought clemency citing her age, childhood sexual abuse, and mental health problems.

The Death Penalty Information Center said Pike was the first inmate ever to survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs. Medical experts had warned of needles becoming dislodged or piercing through the vein, causing lethal drugs to flow into Pike's arm instead of the bloodstream.

Pike's lawyers said her recovery is 'medically unprecedented' and that she faces a long recovery. They also said that despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed.

The head of prisons in Tennessee said he planned to resign following the failed execution. Authorities have not yet said whether they will try again to execute Pike.