Tennessee execution team warned Christa Pike's vein 'might be blowing' but went ahead with failed lethal injection, lawyer says

The IV team used about 10 needles across both arms during a search for a vein that ran from 6.35pm to 7.24pm. 'It's either blood or blown, I need to know,' one member reportedly said. Lawyer Randy Spivey witnessed the 30 September attempt in the death chamber and filed his account in court on Thursday. He says staff even struggled to push saline through the last line.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital and is now speaking in full sentences.

She was 18 when she tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.

Tennessee's protocol says nothing about what happens when a prisoner survives the second dose.