State lawyers in Tennessee are pushing back hard against Christa Pike's bid to leave solitary for a softer housing unit after she survived a failed lethal injection.

Their federal response to her team's October 30 emergency filing says she acts as if she knows better than medical staff about treatment while staying secure.

Prosecutors noted a past attempt to kill another inmate plus discipline for an escape try and said she cannot dictate her own placement. They also warned against letting maximum-security prisoners roam a unit they compared to a nursing home.

Her lawyers say the chance to mix with other women vanished after the failed injection and that she still suffers severe burns nerve damage and painful wounds from that night.

Convicted of killing Colleen Slemmer in 1995 she lived through two lethal-injection doses on September 30 then regained awareness days later in intensive care.