United States death row inmate Christa Pike is “conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care” days after her failed execution, her lawyers have said.
In a statement, her attorneys said Pike, 50, remains handcuffed in hospital and receiving medical care after her execution failed last week.
Her lawyers say “against all odds”, Pike is awake and speaking.
They called her recovery “medically unprecedented”.
“Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed,” they said in a statement.
“Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.”
Pike was sentenced to death after she was convicted of murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995 in a case that shocked the world.
She spent about 30 years on death row and was scheduled to be executed last week.
At her execution on September 30, she survived two pentobarbital injections, which were expected to be lethal, and was transferred to hospital where she has been for a week, as doctors work to remove pentobarbital from her body.
Her lawyers said she suffered “severe damage” to her arms.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the first and only death row inmate to survive “after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs”.
Before the botched execution, Pike’s lawyers had warned that her blood-clotting condition and small veins could lead to unnecessary pain during the execution by lethal injection.
Authorities have not yet explained what they believe went wrong with Pike’s execution or whether they will try again.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended all executions in the state until the end of the year. The state’s prison commissioner has since resigned.
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