Tennessee inmate who survived failed execution conscious and speaking, her attorneys say

Lee halted further executions following Pike's hospitalisation and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred”. 

US Senator Marsha Blackburn, the state’s Republican candidate to replace him, called on the state to explore other methods of execution to ensure it can continue carrying out capital punishment.

Some legal experts have questioned whether the state would be able to try to execute Pike again.

In addition to questions about competency - whether she can understand why she would be put to death - Pike has strong arguments that it would be cruel and unusual to try again, and that it would violate the prohibition on double jeopardy, trying or punishing someone twice for the same offence, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham Law professor who has studied execution methods for 36 years.

“She has satisfied this very, very high standard for cruel and unusual punishment,” Denno said. “She also has a very good double-jeopardy argument. They carried out every aspect of the execution. She didn’t die, but every process they intended, they did it.”

Seattle University Law Professor Michael Russo, who handled capital cases as a public defender in Los Angeles, called the failed execution horrible, but said he doubted whether the Supreme Court would stop the state from trying again on double-jeopardy grounds, should it decide to do so.

“There’s nobody else in the history of the death penalty in this country who has gone through what she’s been through,” Russo said. But he added, “I think what this Supreme Court would say is, her sentence was to die - to be executed - not to suffer an attempt at execution.”