Christa Pike, the death row inmate who survived a botched execution by lethal injection, is now “conscious and speaking”, her lawyers have said.
Hospital treatment and security
Pike, 50, remains in hospital in Tennessee receiving critical medical treatment after surviving two lethal injections last week. Her attorneys said she is being treated under guard and remains handcuffed to her hospital bed.
She was transferred to a hospital in Nashville after the failed execution, and was initially left unconscious as doctors worked to remove the effects of pentobarbital from her system.
Background and sentencing
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. She became the youngest woman sentenced to death following her guilty verdict.
Pike would have become the 30th person put to death in the US this year.
