Death row inmate Christa Pike is in critical condition after two failed attempts to execute her in Tennessee, in an execution described by her lawyers as “cruel and torturous.”
Pike, 50, was due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years after the US Supreme Court overturned an earlier reprieve.
The execution went ahead on Wednesday, but her lawyers said she remained conscious and had a heartbeat after two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital were administered.
They also said she was audibly snoring and showed signs of life after the second dose, prompting an emergency request for medical care.
The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed Pike was taken from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to an off-site medical facility, saying the state had followed its approved execution protocol.
Pike’s lawyers said at least seven needles were used during the hour-long procedure and alleged that she continued breathing and struggling after the lethal drugs were administered.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review of the execution and suspended all other scheduled executions in the state this year.
Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job training facility in Knoxville. She was 18 at the time of the killing and has never denied her involvement.
