Death row inmate Christa Pike survived a failed execution attempt after being administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said.
Pike, 50, was transported to a Tennessee hospital after the attempted execution on Wednesday, September 30.
In an emergency motion to halt the execution on Wednesday, her legal team said, “Ms. Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”
An attorney for the convicted murderer told the BBC that she was “being provided life-saving measures” at a Tennessee hospital after being injected with two syringes of pentobarbital.
The Tennessee Department of Correction told NBC News that Pike had been “transported to an off-site medical facility” following Wednesday’s execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” a TDOC spokesperson told The Tennessean. “The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.”
Pike is the sole woman on death row in Tennessee and was expected to be the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years, per historical records.
In 1996, Pike was convicted of the murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, who attended the attempted execution, told NBC News, “It was a mess.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement, “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional but is effective. I have ordered a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.”
“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” Pike’s legal team told The Tennessean. “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed Pike’s execution just an hour before it was due to take place at 10 a.m. local time. However, the U.S. Supreme Court later overruled that decision, allowing the execution to go ahead.
