Death row inmate, Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death for murder in 1996, has regained consciousness following her failed execution by lethal injection in Tennessee last week.
This failed execution saw Christa Pike survive two doses of pentobarbital, after executioners tried and failed to put her to death.
Pike's lawyers are to appear in court on Wednesday, as they seek to find out more information from the Tennessee Department of Correction, with a scheduled status conference in Nashville taking place this morning.
Pike's prognosis does remain unclear at present, but she is set to face a lengthy recovery following her ordeal, her lawyers said.
They added that their client's arms were also burned and blistered following the failed lethal injection, and that she remains handcuffed to her hospital bed.
“Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care", they said in a statement.
A court order has been requested by Pike's attorneys, requiring the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution including needles, drug lot numbers, execution logs and other information.
Attorneys working with the Tennessee attorney general's office had also written in a Tuesday court filing that the court order is unnecessary as the prison system is “obliged to maintain this evidence in other cases and must assure it is preserved", according to the Irish Independent.
Calling what happened "deeply disturbing", Republican Governor Bill Lee has ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred". The governor also postponed the state's only other execution scheduled for this year.
Medical and lethal experts have pointed to the possibility of a problem with the IV line causing the drug to pool in Christa Pike's tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.
Pike's lawyers wrote in their court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown".
On the day of the planned execution, reports had revealed that curtains were opened by officials at 7.27pm, showing Pike strapped to a gurney, according to media witnesses who observed from a separate room.
Christa Pike had reportedly asked prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel this way, having remained awake.
At 8.26pm, it was revealed by execution witnesses that the second odes of pentobarbital was administered. But Pike could be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8.53pm.
In 1996, Pike was previously sentenced to death, after being found guilty of murdering classmate Colleen Slemmer in September 1995. The pair were classmates at a job training facility in Knoxville at the time.
The case itself had received huge attention as a pentagram was carved on Ms Slemmer's body, while other elements to the crime had stoked fears of Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s. More on this here.
(All quotes according to the Irish Independent).
