Medical experts call Tennessee team's handling of Christa Pike's failed execution 'malpractice' after she survived two lethal doses

Jonathan Groner, an emeritus surgery professor at Ohio State University, described the incompetence as "astounding." A court filing by Pike's lawyer Randy Spivey states that the IV team used around 10 needles over nearly an hour on 30 September. At one stage Pike guided them herself, pointing out where a vein might be found. She was subsequently placed on a ventilator in hospital before being returned to prison.

Pike, 50, tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, when she was 18.

Before the injection, team members raised concerns that some of her veins may have 'blown.'

Tennessee's protocol includes no contingency for a prisoner who survives the second dose.