Tennessee execution team went through about 10 needles and warned Christa Pike's veins may have 'blown', lawyer says

Saline could not even be pushed through the final IV line that was established, attorney Randy Spivey disclosed in a court filing on Thursday. The document is the most detailed account yet of the September 30 attempt to execute Christa Pike, 50, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She survived two doses of pentobarbital. State protocol is silent on what happens if an inmate survives the second dose.

Pike was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Only a third of Americans back a second execution attempt, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

After days on a ventilator, her first words were reportedly: 'where am i and who are you?'