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Deborah Denno, a criminologist and professor at Fordham Law School, said she was "absolutely astonished" that Pike was conscious and speaking.
There had been seven other cases where prisoners survived executions but in those cases, executioners were not able to inject anything into the inmates' veins, Denno told the BBC.
Pike "is the only person for whom some kind of toxin has been injected", she said.
"They did everything they were supposed to do as part of the execution process, and it simply didn't work," Denno said. "This has never happened before."
Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, a local journalist who witnessed the attempted execution said that he, too, did not know of "an exact precedent".
Steven Hale, a journalist for the Nashville Banner, said the case raised many questions, including "what must this be like for the victim's family, who for 30 years has been told we are gonna give you justice and justice is us executing Christa Pike".