Christa Pike is awake after surviving execution: What happens now?

EXPLAINERTennessee death row inmate survives execution attempt, sparking legal and medical concerns.Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived a failed execution by lethal injection in a US prison last week, is conscious and speaking at a hospital, her lawyers have said.Fifty-year-old Pike was convicted of murdering her classmate in 1995.The death penalty Information Center, which publishes data and analysis on capital punishment in the United States, said Pike was the first inmate ever to survive “after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs”.Pike’s “unprecedented” survival raises questions about her medical and legal future.Here’s what we know.What is Christa Pike’s condition now?Pike is under guard, recovering at a hospital in Nashville where she was rushed after surviving the lethal injection administered by the Tennessee-department-of-correction" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="131100" data-entity-type="organization">Tennessee Department of Correction. Her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital on September 30.“Against all odds”, Pike is now “conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care”, her lawyers said, adding that “she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed”.They called her recovery “medically unprecedented”.Pike’s prognosis remained “unclear”, they said, adding that, at a minimum, she faced a lengthy recovery.Why was Pike on death row?Fifty-year-old Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted of a murder as a teenager.The case sparked debate over the death penalty for young offenders, as Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp in 1995.